The Okuda Files
by Mitsuhiko2
Summary: A somewhat alternate/parallel universe fanfic centering around Michael Okuda OC , a brilliant computer hacker and ex-member of the Organization as he becomes Kaitou Kid's sidekick AND a member of the Detective Boys.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Approximately two weeks before the unfortunate incident at Tropical Land which forced teenage detective Kudo Shinichi to become Edogawa Conan and sent him into a whirlwind of intrigue and all those other nasty things associated with the Black Organization, there was another accident.

This accident involved a member of the aforementioned Organization who was unfortunate enough to be apprehended by the American FBI when in that country. He and his captor, an FBI agent whose identity is as yet undisclosed, were seen to be struggling moments before their car drove off a precipice into a particularly deep area of the Pacific Ocean. Currents swept the wreck out to sea; neither it nor the bodies of those inside were ever found.

The public assumed that the prisoner, in a wild attempt to take control of the vehicle and escape, had accidentally caused the car to run over the edge.

The Organization knew differently. Their operative was silencing both of the only two witnesses against them--his captor, and himself.

They were wrong.

The operative, and his captor, survived. Neither of them returned to their normal life. The agent was smuggled away and given a new identity. The operative returned to Japan in an effort to track down the Organization which had stolen his life.

The operative had many things going for him, including the fact that he was the best hacker on the planet, though probably the least known, in addition to having been with the Organization for nearly two years. He knew their computer systems like the back of his hand.

Then he ran into an interesting development. One of his former coworkers was accused of treachery and scheduled for execution. She somehow managed to escape at the last minute.

Fascinated, Mitchell Reed finally found her again, thanks to her research data on the computer of one Agasa Hiroshi. She had apparently taken an experimental drug labelled APTX-4869, which had caused her to revert to the state of an eight-year-old.

Reed followed her activities at a distance for quite a while, careful not to reveal himself to her lest she still retain some loyalty to the Black Organization.

Finally, he decided, he was ready to take the next step.


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing except Michael Okuda and my computer. So there.

* * *

"Did you hear?" Mitsuhiko said excitedly. "There's a new student today!"

"Oh?" said Conan, looking up.

"From America," added Genta.

"America?" Conan shot a quick glance at the door.

The door opened and the teacher entered. Next to her was the new student.  
_(Author's note: Picture Hiroki Sawada(from The Phantom of Baker Street) with sunglasses and a more or less confident expression)_

"Okuda Michael-san," said the teacher as she finished writing the name on the board. "You may sit..." She looked around the room.

He set his bookbag on an empty seat directly in front of the Detective Boys--and Haibara. He glanced back at her momentarily, but faced forwards for the rest of the class.

* * *

"Okuda-san!" Ayumi cried as she ran down the hall. "Wait up!"

The new student glanced back. "Hmm?"

"We'll walk you home," Mitsuhiko volunteered. "Where do you live?"

Michael paused. "My uncle won't be home yet," he said.

"Then do you want to come with us to the Professor's house?" suggested Genta.

"Professor?" Michael asked, looking interested.

"Yes, he's very smart," said Ayumi. "He makes all kinds of cool games. We're going over there this afternoon to try a new one he made--unless a case comes up," she added as they approached the lockers.

"A case?" Michael asked, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"We're the Detective Boys!" explained Mitsuhiko. "We solve cases and find lost pets. People put their requests in Genta's shoelocker."

Genta was rummaging around in it. "Nothing in there today," he reported with a touch of disappointment.

Michael was pulling his shoes on. "What kind of cases do you solve?" he asked.

Mitsuhiko shrugged. "Well, we've caught a gang of thieves before... and we've solved a couple murders."

Michael looked skeptical. "Really? Wow."

"Yes, really," said their teacher, coming up behind them. "They are very smart children."

Michael thought about this. Then he grinned. "Sounds like fun."

"Maybe you should join," suggested Mitsuhiko.

"Yeah, we could always use a new member," Genta agreed. "Hey, Conan! Haibara-san!" he called. "Hurry up!"

* * *

"Wow, you're good!" Mitsuhiko exclaimed as Michael completed yet another level in record time.

"Thank you," Michael said.

"Try this," said a voice behind him. It was Haibara. She stepped in and placed a different disk in the drive. Then she took one of the controllers and sat down next to him.

Michael raised his eyebrows when he saw the title, then grinned. "You're  
on."

"No way," Mitsuhiko exclaimed. "No one has ever beaten Haibara on that game."

"I h- I mean, I can," Michael said. "I've only been beaten once."

They set in at a furious pace. "He IS good," Genta said in amazement as Michael took the lead.

"So's Ai-chan," Ayumi pointed out as she took the lead once more.

The rest of the race was a fast-paced blur. Neither was able to get much of a lead on the other, and quite frequently the two racers were neck-and-neck.

"Aaanndd... Bam!" announced Michael. "I win."

"Amazing!" cried the other three.

Michael glanced narrowly at Haibara. She restarted the game. "Let's try  
that again."

Michael shrugged. "Have it your way," he said. They were quickly neck-and-neck once more. This time Haibara won, but only barely.

"Two out of three?" Michael suggested, starting the race again.

This race was even closer than the previous two. The cars were literally side-by-side for almost the entire race. Then Michael nudged Haibara's car and sent it spinning out of control off the track.

Haibara stared in disbelief at the screen. "Th-that's not possible," she said in amazement.

Michael looked as if he were about to say something, but abruptly closed his mouth. He set down the controller and stood up. "I think I'm done for now."

He stood behind the couch and watched as two of the other children took a turn.

"Something wrong, Haibara?" Conan asked curiously, glancing at her. She seemed lost in thought.

"Hmm? Oh, no," she said after a pause. "I was just--daydreaming."

Conan blinked and looked at her in surprise.


	3. Chapter 2

Haibara slipped off by herself a few minutes later. Taking out her cell  
phone, she downloaded the picture she'd taken of Michael's face and copied  
it to her computer.

Then she opened a terminal and began typing. She'd had some practice with computer hacking, so it didn't take long to get into the police department's network. Scanning the screen rapidly, her eyes darted back and forth, searching...

There was a utility that, when given a picture of someone's face, could predict what that person would look like in a given number of years. The police department often used it to make posters of wanted people or lost or kidnapped children. If her hunch was correct...

Suddenly her hands were brushed aside. Michael leaned in, typing so fast his hands were a blur. Haibara could barely see the windows popping up and closing in a fraction of a second.

After a short time he stopped. "That was careless," he scolded her. "You triggered a silent alarm and were nearly caught by their automated tracing bot."

"So, you _are_--"

"Was," Michael corrected flatly. "Not any more. That person died."

"Regardless," she said coldly. "Why are you here?"

"Because," Michael snorted. "You left your computer wide open, completely disregarding everything I've ever told you about security. No, that's not quite true," he conceded at her protest. "You _did_ implement some of my security software. And hid your private journal with that steganography software, even if you did ignore my explicit directions on using it. But you followed barely any of the other established protocols which, by the way, are part of the reason They haven't been found."

"So you came here to scold me for my lax security," Haibara said, rolling her eyes.

"No, I came here because you clearly need my help if you're going to have any hope of defeating Them," Michael retorted. "If you keep going like this, they'll be all over you and you'll have no way out."

"What are you talking about?" Conan asked, coming in from the stairwell.

Michael glanced over at him. "Oh, Edogawa... We were--"

"He was giving me a lecture on how I was going to lead the Organization straight to us," Haibara said drily. "Imagine."

Conan frowned. "Who are you?"

"He's--" Haibara began. Michael held up his hand.

"I _am_ Michael Okuda," he said firmly. "Who I once was no longer matters. Suffice it to say that I _was_ a member of this Organization, thanks to _her_," he jerked his thumb towards Haibara. "Fortunately for me, I managed to escape with my life, barely. Now, I'm working to shut them down." He scowled at Haibara.

"So then I take it you're..." Conan gestured at Haibara and himself. "Like us?"

"Shrunk? Yes. I uncovered her research data and, specifically, the interesting side effect which seemed to be her new fascination. I got my hands on a bit of the substance, and the rest is what you see now."

"So it worked on you, too?" Haibara questioned.

"Well, duh," Michael said. "Of course it did."

Conan could feel the animosity between the two. "What's with you guys?"

Michael shrugged and turned back to the computer without answering. Haibara just looked away and spoke to neither of them for the rest of the evening.

After securing Agasa's computer, Michael headed back to his apartment. It wasn't very large, but then he didn't need much space. What he did need was privacy. And his neighbors--particularly the old woman next door—seemed intent on invading that privacy.

He somehow managed to slip into his apartment without being caught. Usually she would poke her head out and ask when his uncle would come back, to which Michael would usually reply that he was asleep on the sofa. He never was, of course, because he didn't exist, but Michael knew that there was no way he'd get away with living by himself. Even if he was really 18, no one would believe he wasn't 8--which wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

He set down his bookbag and locked the door. You never know who might show up, and since Michael wasn't expecting anyone, it was safer to lock it.

He found some leftover pizza in the refrigerator, and ate while doing his homework on his laptop. When he finished, it was nine o'clock, so he just turned out the light and went to bed.

* * *

The next day, the school was abuzz. "Did you hear?" Mitsuhiko whispered excitedly to Michael. "Kaitou Kid's announced his next heist--it'll be right here in Tokyo!"

"Who?" Michael blinked, confused.

"The Phantom Thief Kid," Genta said. "You mean you've never heard of him?"

"Phantom thief?" Michael mused. "Oh, right, I remember now. He disappeared about 8 years ago, then reappeared just recently, right?"

"Yep," Conan said, coming up to the group. "Kaitou Kid is famous for doing all his thefts in an impractically white suit, and sending out notices first."

"Despite that," Haibara added, glancing at Conan with a smirk, "no one seems to be able to catch him."

"Oh really?" Michael said, looking interested. "And where is he hitting again?"

* * *

"You can't catch him," Haibara said flatly when they were alone.

"You underestimate the power of the dark side," Michael said in a mock Darth Vader voice.

"They have had the best people in the world trying to catch him," Haibara continued, ignoring him. "What makes you think you'll be any different?"

Michael frowned. "I'm a brilliant hacker. The best people in the world have been trying to catch _me_, too. And they haven't yet, in fact they don't even know what they're looking for. So I have a bit of a unique perspective on the matter."

She looked at him for a moment, then turned and walked silently back to class.


	4. Chapter 3

That afternoon, Michael went home and dug out a toolbox from underneath his workbench. Setting out the equipment he needed, he began constructing something to help track down Kid a little easier. It would, of course, depend on one thing which Michael couldn't control--that Kid would bring his cell phone--but, Michael figured, it was worth a shot.

Clicking on the television, he watched the news report about the anticipated heist as he worked. The reporter said that the target was the recently discovered "Shogi" stone, so called because it was rumored to have been a reward to the man who invented the game of Shogi. The stone, a large diamond, was under heavy guard at a museum in downtown Tokyo.

Michael finished working with the clutter of tools, wires, and electronic components and turned on his laptop. He quickly downloaded the museum's architectural layout and added that data to his program.

Then Michael took the device he'd just finished and attached it to the laptop. It was a seemingly random tangle of wires, which he plugged into several different ports, adding pieces of duct tape here and there to hold it on, and humming to himself the whole time.

When it was all hooked up, he took out his cell phone. He tapped a few keys on the keyboard, then began moving his cell phone through the room. A small green blip on the screen moved, following his actions.

When Michael looked at the clock, it was nearly two in the morning. "Wow," he muttered to himself, quickly undressing for bed. "I didn't realize this was going to take so long."

He hadn't realize how tired he was, either; he was asleep almost before his head hit his pillow.

* * *

He awoke the next morning to see the sun streaming through his window. Silencing his insistent alarm clock, he squinted at its screen. "Ten o'clock?" He sat up straight and checked his watch. "Oh, right. Saturday. No school." He flopped back over and lay there for another minute, collecting his thoughts.

"Right... today's the day Kaitou Kid tries to steal that jewel..." he rubbed his eyes and rolled out of bed.

Michael got a quick breakfast, cold cereal and orange juice. He was just cleaning up the dishes when he was startled by a knock at the door.

Looking through the peephole, Michael could see an official-looking person in a suit, carrying a briefcase. Fortunately the suit was grey instead of black.

Michael opened the door, leaving the security lock on so it would only crack open. "What do you want?"

The official looked down his nose at Michael. "Are your parents at home, boy?" he asked.

"No, why?" Michael asked carefully.

"They left you at home alone?" the visitor pressed.

"What's wrong with that?" Michael snapped defensively.

"How long have they been gone?" The man bent down so his face was even with Michael's.

Michael scowled. "That's none of your business." He tried to close the door, but the official shoved his foot in the crack.

"Your next-door neighbors say you have been the only one in this apartment for two weeks. That is far too long to go without parental supervision." The official frowned at him. "Let me in, young man."

Leaving the security lock to do its job, Michael stepped away from the door. He shoved his laptop into its backpack and grabbed his skates. "Look, mister," he said, opening the second-story balcony, "I don't know who you think you are, but you have no right to be barging in on me without a warrant or something." He looked over the edge; there was a box truck just below the window, fortunately for him.

"See you at the bottom," he called to the door.

"Wait, what are you--" There was a frantic thumping, then the sound of running footsteps. The door slowly swung to. Michael clicked it shut and locked it, then leapt out onto the roof of the truck. Running down over the hood of the truck, he quickly reached the ground and strapped his skates  
on. The Children's Services agent, or whatever the Japanese equivalent was, burst through the door and saw him. "Stop!" he bellowed.

Michael didn't stop. He turned and started skating down the sidewalk at full speed. His pursuer climbed into a car and, starting it up, tried to follow him.

Fortunately, the streets of Tokyo were somewhat busier than the sidewalks, so Michael was able to escape fairly easily from his traffic-bound opponent. He made a beeline to Beika Park.

Glancing around to make sure his would-be pursuer was nowhere in sight, he pulled out his laptop. It was the work of a moment to break into their network and make a few strategic changes to his file. Hopefully, he thought, closing the laptop, when they discover that they visited the wrong set of apartments, they'll forget about this little incident...

Just then a car screeched to a stop just outside the park. Michael glanced up in time to see the social worker climbing out of his car. "Drat," he muttered as he slipped the laptop back into the backpack. "Don't you ever learn?"

This time he zipped right by the man's car. His pursuer swore as he landed with a thud on the pavement. Scrambling to his feet, he attempted to pursue Michael on foot, but since he was a bit overweight, Michael was easily able to outdistance him.

He swung by Agasa's house and skidded through the front door.

"Michael-kun?" Agasa said, looking up from his workbench.

"Oh, hi, Professor," Michael said cheerfully. "Can you keep an eye on my bag for me? I'll be back in a bit to pick it up." Before Agasa could reply, Michael was back through the door.

"What was that?" Haibara asked, coming into the room just too late to see Michael disappearing.

"O-oh, your friend Michael-kun was dropping off his bag," Agasa said, gesturing at it. "He seemed to be in quite a hurry."

"Oh?" Haibara glanced at the bag. Suspiciously, she unzipped it and opened it.

"O-oy, Haibara!" Agasa protested. She pulled out a note.

"No, it's not a bomb, and don't even think about touching it, Haibara," she read. "Michael Okuda."

Peeking into the bag, she saw Michael's laptop covered in wires. "Yeah, whatever," she said, carelessly tossing the note back into the backpack. "Like I'd want to."

"Yee-ha!" Michael hollered, flying down a busy Tokyo sidewalk. He dodged between two pedestrians. Then he realized that was the wrong choice.

He had two options: Run over a group of kids, or run into a lightpole. He chose the latter so as to inflict the least amount of collateral damage.

Then he realized that that, too, was the wrong choice. Unfortunately, it was too late for him to do anything but try to avoid hitting it with his head. He ended up spinning around the pole twice and landing in a heap at the bottom.

"Michael-kun?" said a familiar voice.

"Are you all right?"

Michael stumbled to his feet, leaning on the lightpole. "Oh, you guys," he said, recognizing Genta, Ayumi, and Mitsuhiko. "What's up?"

"That's what we should be asking you," Genta said, annoyed. "Why were you going so fast on a pedestrian sidewalk?"

"Yes, you could have hurt someone," Mitsuhiko said, glaring at him.

"Oh, I--" Michael started to explain, laughing sheepishly. Then he noticed the white car again, coming up beside them. "Uh, I have to go!" He took off again.

They stared after him. "Kids these days," muttered Genta. Mitsuhiko and Ayumi nodded. "Mm-hmm."

* * *

Michael finally managed to lose his pesky tail around lunchtime. He headed back to Agasa's house to pick up the bag.

"Thanks for watching that for me, Professor," he said, picking it up and glancing inside.

"Oh, no problem, Michael-kun," Agasa laughed nervously.

Michael narrowed his eyes. "She tried to get into it, didn't she?"

"Ah, well--" Agasa stammered.

"No matter," Michael said calmly. "It looks intact. Fortunately."

"So what exactly were you doing earlier?" Haibara asked, coming into the room. "Ayumi-chan said you nearly ran over them."

"They're here?" Michael glanced around.

"No," Haibara said. "They called on the detective badges.

"Detective badges?" Michael said, sounding puzzled.

"Oh, that reminds me," Agasa said, digging into a drawer. He pulled one out and handed it to Michael. "Here. It has a transciever, you activate it like this--" he showed him how to operate it. "And it has a transponder which links with the tracking glasses I invented."

"Interesting," Michael said, turning it over in his hand.

"And what were you doing?" Haibara asked again.

Michael's eyes flashed with mischief. "Running away from CPS."

"Who?" Haibara asked, confused.

"Children's Protective Services," Michael said. "That's what they're called in the US. They dropped by because one of my nosy neighbors complained that I had been left to my own devices for two weeks."

"Uh-oh," Agasa said, looking worried.

"No uh-oh," Michael corrected him. "They'll discover that there was apparently a mistake in the printed copy this agent got. He came to my apartment instead of the one in the next apartment building over."

"But I thought you said--" Agasa began. Then he stopped. "You mean you hacked their computer?"

Michael looked hurt. "I'm just a kid," he said. "How could I hack anything?"

Haibara snorted and turned back to her work. Michael found a stool and started talking to Agasa about the badges, and his other inventions as well. It was nearly two o'clock when Michael remembered that he hadn't had lunch yet.


	5. Chapter 4

Michael surveyed the museum. Recalling the layout he'd memorized earlier--one of the nice things about having a photographic memory, he thought—he noted that there were almost an infinite number of routes Kid could take to escape once he had gotten the jewel. However, Michael wasn't planning to actually catch the Kid this evening. If he could, he wouldn't hesitate to try, of course, but he was after something else in particular.

The TV station had video from their cameras on the inside being displayed on a large flat screen on the side of the recording van. Michael set up his laptop in a relatively quiet place where he could still see the screen.

Using the information from the video feeds, Michael was able to assign tags to the cell phones he was picking up. He set the police phones to show up as blue and the observers as green. After a moment, he located Conan in the picture and made his cell phone yellow. When the Kid moved in for the jewel, Michael figured, he would set that blip to red.

He looked at his watch. Thirty seconds until Kid showed up... 20... 15...

The crowd took up the count. "10! 9! 8! 7!"

Michael glared at the screen, his fingers poised above the keyboard. He was ready.

"Four! Three! Two! One!"

The TV camera registered a loud "Pow!" and a cloud of smoke. When it cleared, Kid was hanging upside down above the pedestal with the jewel in his hands.

Michael grinned. Sure enough, Kid had his cell phone. Michael tagged it quickly and set the program on automatic.

His computer followed the flashing dot that was Kaitou's cell phone through the building, showing images from security cameras where they were available. Michael glanced up occasionally at the big screen on the truck, but it wasn't showing much since Kid was running throughout the building and the reporters couldn't follow him.

Conan could, though, and Michael watched intently as time and again Conan predicted the Kid's next move and moved to intercept him. There was one other cell phone that was also keeping pace with Kid, and its owner kept running into Conan. Finally, Kid rejoined the larger group of blips that was the police force. He moved apparently unhindered towards the exit, while Conan and the other person--Hakuba someone, Michael noted with a glance at its details--were stopped. He wasn't sure what they were doing.

Michael swiveled his laptop's screen to tablet mode and stood up. Glancing from the tablet to the crowd, he moved in on the Kid. Maybe he would get to meet him after all.

* * *

"Excuse me?"

Kaito looked down at the young boy who was staring up at him. "What do you want?" he asked, annoyed.

The boy pulled a pad and pencil out of his backpack. "Can I have your autograph, Mr. Kid?"

Kaito's poker face slipped on. "Mr. Kid?" He bent down and ruffled the boy's hair. "I'm not Kaitou Kid, if that's what you mean," he said with a laugh.

"Of course not," the boy said calmly. "But can I have your autograph anyway if I promise not to tell?"

Kaito almost let his poker face slip. There was something about this boy... it reminded him of Tantei-kun. "I said I'm not the Kid," he said, standing irritably.

The boy frowned. "And both of us know that that's a lie," he said softly. He extended the pad one more time.

Kaito hesitated, then slowly took the pad. "What's your name?" he asked, scribbling something on it.

"Michael Okuda," Michael said. "And I meant it when I said I wouldn't tell."

Kaito carefully tore off the page and handed back the pad. Then he ripped the autograph in little pieces. Gathering them all together in one hand, he counted to three, then opened his hand to reveal it intact, folded into the shape of a flower. He saluted Michael gravely. "Good luck, Michael-kun."

Michael smirked. "Thank you." He turned and slowly headed back towards the crowd.

* * *

"Michael-kun!" someone called. He glanced up to see the Detective Boys separate from the crowd and run towards him. Michael glanced over his shoulder; as he expected, the Kid was gone. He had all the data he needed on his laptop, though--Kid's cell phone number. That would be enough to get the Phantom Thief's real name and address.

"Did you catch him?" Ayumi asked, panting, as they caught up with Michael. "Ai-chan said you were trying to."

Michael looked over at her. She smiled innocently.

He tossed her the origami flower. Haibara caught it, frowning. She glanced at him, then unfolded it.

"Kaitou Kid," she read slowly.

"An autograph?" Mitsuhiko said excitedly. "You got his autograph?"

Michael shrugged. Haibara scowled and carelessly tossed it back to him.

"Let me see!" Ayumi begged.

"What is it?" Conan asked, coming in from the direction of the crowd.

"Michael got Kaitou Kid's autograph!" Genta exclaimed.

"What?!" Conan yelped. He seized the paper and examined it. Then he glared at Michael. "How did you get this?"

"I asked him for it," Michael said calmly. "Why?"

"When did you ask him?" Conan snapped.

"After he left," Michael said. "Oh, and just a moment." He unslung his backpack. After rummaging around for a bit, he carefully withdrew the sparkling jewel that Kaitou had just stolen a few minutes before. "I guess he didn't need it."

Conan gaped at him. Then he abruptly snapped his mouth shut and dragged Michael over to Inspector Nakamori to return the jewel and try to get an explanation out of Michael.

All Michael would say was that he "asked him" for the autograph. He didn't know how he knew, he said, he just knew it was Kid. And then he must have slipped the stone in Michael's backpack when Michael turned to go.

* * *

Neither Conan nor Haibara would talk to him for the next two days. The rest of the class, though, thought he was amazing, and couldn't stop talking about him.

Michael disliked the publicity and started hiding whenever someone tried to ask him again how he found Kid, or was it true that he was really Kid's brother and so on. Conan took great pleasure in disclosing Michael's hiding places and the Detective Boys actually managed to turn a profit for once as  
the official "Michael Finders".


	6. Chapter 5

Kaito's cell phone buzzed, indicating that he had a text message. He didn't recognize the number. Curious, he took it out and read the message.

"Kaito--Am interested in pursuing an apprenticeship of sorts with you. Please call shortly. -The kid from before"

"Who?" Kaito muttered to himself, thinking. "The kid from before—last night?"

"Fan mail on your cell phone?" an annoyingly familiar voice interrupted his thoughts.

Kaito jumped. "Hakuba! You made me delete it!" he snapped, acting upset.

"I did not either," Hakuba retorted. "That was your fault for not paying attention."

"Not paying attention?" Kaito roared, getting right in Hakuba's face. "I'm eating! I'm not supposed to HAVE to pay attention to everything that goes on around me!"

Hakuba jumped back, blinking. He wasn't expecting--

Something cold and wet dripped onto his nose. Then another drop.

Gingerly Hakuba removed his melting ice-cream cone from his hair. "Kaito..." he growled.

"I'm not the one who wasn't paying attention," Kaito said, smirking as he dug into his own ice cream sundae.

Hakuba stormed off without a word.

"How'd he get my number anyway?" Kaito mused. "And why does it say 'Kaito' instead of 'Kaitou'...?" He finally opened the message--which he had NOT deleted--and sent off a quick reply.

* * *

"9:30," Michael read to himself. He nodded and deleted the message.

"What's at nine-thirty?" someone asked over his shoulder. He jumped.

"Haibara!" he said, turning quickly. "Stop sneaking up on me like that!"

"I thought you were the one who was paranoid about being caught," she reminded him. "Aren't you supposed to be more alert?"

Michael scowled. "I'm not expecting to be caught by you," he snapped.

"Are you saying I'm better at catching you than They are?" she replied sweetly.

Michael pointedly turned back to his juice and ignored her.

* * *

"This is Michael," Michael answered his cell phone at precisely 9:30 that evening.

"Do I know you?" was the first thing the caller said.

"Yes," Michael said. "You gave me an autograph."

"And somehow you think that makes you worthy of being my apprentice?" Michael could hear the condescension practically dripping out of the phone line.

"No," Michael replied calmly. "But, if you will recall, I _did_ get your cell phone number, real name, and address, from that last heist. And I did it without talking to anyone."

There was a pause from the other end of the line. "How did you do that?" The condescension was becoming less evident.

"I believe you know Edogawa Conan," Michael said, changing the subject abruptly.

"Uh, yes, but surely you don't--"

"And you know Kudo Shinichi?"

There was another pause. "Yes."

"He mentioned that you knew about the connection. And no, before you ask, I didn't tell him about you."

"Then who, exactly, are you?" Kaito asked, beginning to let his frustration show.

"You won't have heard of me in my former life," Michael said. "You may have heard of the Philo hacking group?"

There was a pause. "I don't think so," Kaito admitted.

"Ah well. Let's just say they were--or rather are--a highly skilled team of hackers who can get in anywhere, any time, without being detected. They're every security expert's worst nightmare. And I am at least as good as their entire team, if not better. I have just never gone public." Michael dropped his voice almost to a whisper towards the end.

There was a lengthy pause as Kaito digested this information. "Can you prove that?"

"It took me all of two minutes to hack into the cell phone company, given only your cell phone number, and find out everything they had on you. From there I pulled every record I could find on you, your mother, and--and your father."

"So why should I take you as my apprentice again?" Kaito asked, tapping his bed frame.

"Well, for starters, I'm interested in learning exactly what it takes to be a phantom thief," Michael said. "Secondly, I'm fascinated by your magic and sleight of hand; and thirdly, I'm willing to pay you for your time and effort."

"Pay me?" Kaito said, looking up at the ceiling. "Why would I need you to pay me? I am THE Kaitou Kid, after all..."

"Who always returns every jewel he's stolen," Michael added. "I can't imagine you'd get much profit out of that."

"True," conceded Kaito. "But the hardest part will be, there's this detective kid who follows me around. If you start coming over for no apparent reason, there's bound to be questions."

"But didn't you know?" Michael asked innocently. "I'm your grandmother's niece's brother-in-law's best friend's cousin's son, visiting from America while his parents go off gallivanting around the world."

"Oh, THAT Michael Okuda!" Kaito exclaimed gleefully. "Well, then, I'll talk to my mom and see what she says to the idea. She's cool like that."

"You have my number," Michael said. "Text me when you get the answer."

"And, of course, don't tell Conan or any of those pesky detective people," Kaito added.

"Of course," Michael said.


	7. Chapter 6

"I heard you had a run-in with a social worker," Conan commented in school the next day.

Michael snickered as he remembered the incident. "Oh, yeah. That was fun."

"Fun?" Conan looked at him funny.

"He followed me like a hawk through downtown Tokyo. You should've seen him trying to chase me on foot," Michael laughed. "I haven't had that much fun since I hacked the NSA's software labs."

"You did what?" Conan blinked.

"It's a joke," Michael said. "The NSA runs the most heavily secured network in the world. No one could get anything past it without permission."

"Oh," said Conan, not quite believing him. "So what are you going to do about it?"

"I arranged to stay with some distant relatives," Michael answered quietly, glancing around. "I figured out how to hook up the Professor's voice-changing gadget to my cell phone and called them, pretending to be my dad."

"I see," Conan said. "Who are they?"

"Actually, it's the family of a famous magician who, unfortunately, died in an accident about eight years ago," Michael said. "The Kurobas."

"Kuroba Toichi?" Conan asked. He glanced around too to make sure they weren't being observed. "He taught my mother her makeup skills."

"Oh, I didn't know that," Michael said, interested. "Is she an actor?"

"She was at one point," Conan said.

Just then the bell rang, signaling the end of recess. They headed inside with the rest of the students.

* * *

"Oh, there you are," Kaito said, glancing up as Michael entered the house. "Mom was worried that you might have gotten lost trying to find your way home."

Michael laughed. "No such luck. I just got on a slow bus."

Kaito grinned. "So I'm supposed to teach you magic, hmm?"

"That's the idea," Michael said, setting his bookbag down in the corner.

"Let's start out with you telling me what you know about magic," Kaito said, leaning back and propping his feet up. He pulled out a deck of cards and began shuffling through it.

"Well, let's see," Michael said. "At its core, magic is the art of deception. The performer deceives the audience by either directly misleading them or withholding information, resulting in an apparently impossible effect."

"Good," said Kaito. "However it's not quite as malevolent as you make it sound. Go on."

Michael smirked and continued. "There was a guy named Thurston who laid out three basic don'ts for magic: One, don't give away secrets, that's a given; Two, don't explain your trick before you do it; and three, don't do the same trick twice."

"Right," said Kaito. "Those are important. Have you heard of the Magician's Oath?"

"Yes," said Michael. "It involves swearing not to divulge secrets or tricks to non-magicians, correct?"

"Right again," Kaito flipped the four aces into the air and caught them neatly. "You've done your homework. So, repeat after me:" He recited the Oath slowly. Michael repeated it after him.

"Now," Kaito said, leaning towards him. "One more question: How old are you really?"

Michael smiled. "Eight."

"Really," Kaito said, frowning.

"Biologically, yes," Michael said. "Chronologically I'm eighteen."

"I see," Kaito said, nodding. "How did you... shrink, anyway?"

"There's this experimental poison," Michael said. "It apparently has this side effect where it occasionally takes about ten years off its victim."

Kaito looked at him. "Really?"

Michael sighed. "No, I actually ran afoul of a tooth fairy when I was eight and she kept me from growing up after that."

Kaito smirked. "I'll go with your first story. How'd you get poisoned with it?"

"I don't talk about it," Michael said steadily. "It would only cause problems for people who knew. Ordinarily, of course, I wouldn't have said that much."

"So then why did you?" Kaito asked.

"I figured that since I knew your secret identity, it's only fair you know as much of mine as I can disclose," Michael shrugged.

"I see," Kaito nodded. "Well, then, I'm going to lay out a few guidelines. First, and probably the most obvious," Kaito glared at Michael, "The fact that I am Kid does not go beyond the residents of this household. Those being me, you, and my mother. There's several people you have to watch out for, first and foremost being Hakuba Saguru." Kaito clicked on the computer screen to reveal a not overly complimentary picture of Hakuba wearing an ice-cream cone on his head. "Despite appearances to the contrary, he's actually quite good and is probably my most competent opponent." He clicked to the next slide. "Inspector Nakamori, his bark is worse than his bite." Nakamori was caught in a particularly furious pose, in the middle, no doubt, of hurling some scorching epithet at the escaping Kid.

"That's one way to put it," Michael murmured, recalling the firestorm of verbal abuse Nakamori placed alternately on himself, Conan, and the Kid when he returned the jewel a few days ago.

Kaito snickered. "At any rate, he's very predictable. So he's not much of a threat." He clicked to the next slide. "You've already met him, I believe."

Michael nodded, looking at the picture of Conan flying a paraglider. "I didn't know he could do that."

"Me neither," Kaito admitted, "until then." He clicked to the next slide. "Not so much an enemy of Kid," he admitted, "but she's a witch and, apparently, infatuated with me."

"A witch?" Michael asked dubiously.

"Yes, a witch," Kaito mimicked. "Don't ask me how, but she works. She usually alternates between trying to kill me, trying to save me from impending doom--sometimes brought on by her in the first place--and trying to slip me some kind of love potion."

"Oh," said Michael.

"Yes, anyway. This is Jii-chan, my father's assistant and, now, my assistant. He's very helpful, and he's the one other person who knows my secret identity."

Kaito clicked over to the next slide. He glanced over as Michael let out a sharp gasp.

"You know him?" he asked. Michael shook his head negatively, but his gaze never left the person on the screen. "This is someone called Snake. He and his companions are looking for a certain large gemstone called Pandora. Apparently, it has the unique property of leaking the elixir of life when a certain comet passes overhead."

"First a witch, now the Philosopher's Stone?" Michael asked, glancing at Kaito.

"And a kid who acts like an adult," Kaito reminded him. "Such is the life of phantom thieves. Anyhow, these men are responsible for the death of my father, Kuroba Toichi--" Kaito paused for a split second--"who you have no doubt heard of."

"I heard that was an accident on stage," Michael said softly.

"That was what everyone thought," Kaito said. "Apparently that was their cover up for the murder."

"I'm sorry," Michael looked down at his lap.

Kaito glanced over at him. "And last, there's me, Kuroba Kaito, Phantom Thief Kid, or Kaitou Kid. You can address me as 'master'."

"Yes, master," Michael said, imitating the assistant in a horror film.

Kaito laughed. "Or not, however you prefer. Just don't call me Kid in front of the aforementioned enemies, unless I am Kid at the moment, in which case don't call me Kuroba. Got that?"

Michael nodded and repeated, almost verbatim, what he'd said.

"Good," Kaito said. "There are three things a good magician needs. First, of course, is quick fingers. Second, a good memory, which it looks like you have. And third, one of the most important lessons my father ever taught me, is a good poker face. 'Kaito,' he'd say, 'Never forget your poker face.'"

Michael nodded. "My mom was a psychologist," he said, grinning, "so I've never had much success with that last one."

Kaito chuckled. "That's a mother for you," he agreed with a laugh. "My mom's the same way. Fortunately, we're not stealing from our parents."


	8. Chapter 7

"Pick a card," Michael told his classmate, fanning a deck of cards out in front of him. Cautiously, the student picked a card and pulled it out.

"Now, don't let me see what it is," Michael cautioned. He shuffled the remaining cards thoroughly. "Now, you know that in every deck of cards, there are only two with the same number and the same color, right?"

The young boy nodded, his classmates crowding around him to see.

Still holding the cards facedown, Michael again spread them out. "Now, will you--yes, you," he said, gesturing at a small girl towards the front--"You pick a card. Any card."

She moved her hands uncertainly over the deck in his hands and finally chose one towards the middle. Everyone gasped as the saw which one it was.

"Wow, how did you do that, Michael-kun?" cried one. Michael's two participants laid down their cards to reveal the nines of diamonds and hearts.

Michael smirked and swept the cards back into his pocket. "A magician never reveals his secrets," he said, shaking his finger and winking.

"Aaww," a collective groan went up.

"But," Michael said, relenting, "I suppose I could show you one or two magic tricks at recess."

"Yeah!" everyone cheered.

The teacher, who had been watching with just as much interest as the children, clapped her hands and instructed everyone to return to their seats. "Recess will come sooner if we get our work done quickly," she reminded them.

"That was easy," Conan muttered to him as he passed him.

"Oh?" Michael glanced at him. "Care to explain it, then?"

"Sure," Conan said. "You made the distance between most of the cards too small to get a good grip on one card. The card you wanted them to pick, you set apart slightly so it would be the easiest to take."

"But he didn't take that one," Michael pointed out.

"No," Conan said. "He took the one he thought you were trying to keep him from taking. It's just reverse psychology. The girl, on the other hand, took the card you suggested."

Michael grinned. "Exactly what I expected from you." He took his seat.

* * *

"I'm home," Michael called. No one answered.

He set down his bookbag. "Hmm, Kaito-niichan must be out somewhere."

"Oh, Michael-kun," said Kaito's mother, coming into the room and wiping her hands on a dish cloth. "Kaito said to send you up to his room when you got home."

"His room?" Michael wondered.

There was no one there when Michael arrived. "Kaito?" He looked around.

There was a painting of Kaito's father, Kuroba Toichi, on the wall. It didn't look quite right... looking closer, Michael could see that it looked like it as though there was something behind it. He gave it a tug and jumped backwards when it spun around, showing a hidden room behind it.

"Kaito?" he questioned, crawling through carefully. Kaito glanced over at him.

"Oh, there you are," Kaito said. He snapped the book he'd been flipping through shut. "So, you want to be a Phantom Thief like me?"

"Yes," Michael said calmly, concealing his excitement.

"Then there's two options," Kaito said, putting his hands on his hips and looking down at Michael. "I've already shown you the basics of magic and sleight of hand. Now you can choose to either take a paced, two-year course in which I'll teach you everything you need to know to be a successful Kaitou. Or, you can take the two-week crash course into which I will cram everything that you'd ordinarily learn in two years." He looked at Michael seriously.

"Oh, the crash course, definitely," Michael said without hesitation.

"One warning," Kaito said, holding up a finger. "I make no guarantees as to your survival of the crash course."

Michael grinned mischeviously. "So then, crash course it is."

"Good," said Kaito, grinning. "We begin now. Our goal is to steal these ten jewels in two weeks," he said, producing a list. "Ten consecutive heists in only two weeks would be difficult--though not impossible, of course--for me to do alone. With you, if you learn as quickly as you say you do, we should be home in time for dinner on Friday."

"Don't you mean Wednesday?" Michael smirked.

"Don't get overconfident," Kaito warned. "Friday will be fine. The most important thing is to get the jewels and not get caught."

"That's two things," Michael pointed out.

"Only for an ordinary thief," Kaito said. "For a Kid, accomplishing the mission and escaping are the same thing."

Michael nodded. "Point taken."

"Now," Kaito said, pulling out his card gun. "You should probably practice a bit before you try to use one of these, they tend to be--"

Michael's hand swished past his jacket zipper, somehow collecting a small--though apparently modified--pocket pistol from inside. Twirling it on his finger, he caught it neatly. Clicking a lever on the back, he opened the chamber to show a 16-gauge shotgun shell.

He pulled it out and examined it. "This one's a smoke bomb," he said, putting it back into the gun. "I load my own shotgun shells. I've collected quite a variety of designs."

Kaito chuckled. "Nice," he said. "But can it shoot cards?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "I've never tried loading a shell with playing cards."

"Keep it," Kaito said, holstering his own. "It sounds very useful. Now, I'm sure you've seen my hang glider cape at least once?"

"I've seen a couple TV shots," Michael said, "but never in person or up close."

Kaito lifted the contraption off a hook on the wall. Amazingly compact, the mechanism--and cape--could be easily hidden by a jacket. Kaito slipped it on in demonstration.

"I'm afraid it's not quite your size," he said, looking at Michael, "and I can't open it up in here, either."

"Is it like an umbrella?" Michael asked. "Bad luck to open indoors?"

Kaito snickered. "I don't know," he said. "I never have. Though I suppose if it didn't close again, it would be."

"Have you ever had that problem?" Michael asked.

"No, it's very reliable, even when it gets shot at," Kaito said, fingering a nick in the frame. He hung it back on the wall. "The rest of Kid's outfit, of course, is the hat and monocle." He took them off a shelf and held the monocle up to the light.

"And the various items he secretes about his person to help in escaping," Michael added.

"Of course," Kaito said. "Though I usually keep those even when I'm not going around as Kid."

He looked at his watch. "Now, it's time to get started!"


	9. Chapter 8

The Tokyo Prefecture Metropolitan police department was in an uproar.

"Ten robberies in two weeks?" roared Inspector Nakamori. "How the # does he think he's going to do that?"

* * *

"Kid's really ambitious this week," Mitsuhiko exclaimed. They were all gathered at Agasa's house.

"Is he really going to take all ten jewels?" Ayumi wondered.

"Not if I have anything to do with it," Conan muttered.

"What is it with you and the Kid?" Genta asked Conan, annoyed. "He's so cool!"

"Conan's upset because Kaitou Kid keeps beating him every time they meet," Haibara suggested.

"No he doesn't," Conan objected.

"Just admit it, Conan," Mitsuhiko said. "He's awesome!"

* * *

"Kid's first heist of his two-week marathon is here, the Tokyo Museum of the Arts," announced the TV reporter. Looking around, she pointed out the police officers scattered around the main hall. "Inspector Nakamori, would you like to say something about Kid's notice?"

"Yes," a disgruntled Nakamori said. "If that fool Kid thinks he can outrun the Tokyo police force ten times in two weeks, he is sorely mistaken. If you're watching, Kid, this will be your last heist!"

* * *

"You can't be serious," Hakuba's jaw dropped as he stared at the television screen. "Ten robberies in two weeks? What is that Kaito thinking?"

* * *

Akako glared through her window. What was Kaito thinking, stealing ten separate jewels in such a short span of time? It was practically begging to get caught. And yet... he was _the_ Kaitou Kid, after all...

* * *

The crowd inside the museum was tremendous. Inspector Nakamori was forced to have them held back by a line of policemen.

"Almost time," he muttered anxiously, glancing at his watch.

The crowd began chanting. "Ten! Nine! Eight!"

Michael looked down from above. "All clear," he said softly into the radio.

"Good," came the reply. "Go."

Michael released a dove. Everyone looked up, following the flight of the bird as it circled the room twice. Then it flew down and landed on Kid's finger. He had slipped onto the case while everyone had their attention focused on the bird.

Meanwhile, Michael headed out into the hallway and started to go towards the roof access stairwell. Just then someone tapped him on the shoulder. Michael turned to see Hakuba standing over him. "Are you lost?" Hakuba asked him.

"Uh, yeah," Michael said, thinking quickly. "I'm trying to find the bathroom."

"It's right down the steps, that way," Hakuba said. "Turn left at the bottom, then go down the other hallway and it'll be on your right."

"So, I go left right there, then go right and they're at the bottom of the stairs?" Michael asked, feigning confusion.

Hakuba sighed. "I'll show you," he said. "Follow me."

By the time they got to the bathroom, it was evident from the uproar that Kid had struck, and Hakuba hurried back the way he'd come. Michael took the exit and hurried outside into the evening. Squinting, he looked up at the roof.

Sure enough, Kaito was there with his hang-glider. He jumped off and soared away, just before another figure stumbled over to the wall and stared after him in frustration.

* * *

Kaito and Michael regrouped at Beika Park as planned. "That went very nicely," Kaito said. "I just called Jii-chan, we're stopping by his place on the way home."

"All right," Michael agreed. "Say, you know that Hakuba guy? He's kind of helpful, actually."

"Oh?" Kaito glanced at him curiously.

"Yeah," Michael said. "He showed me where the restroom was. Too bad he didn't make it back in time to catch Kid."

Kaito chuckled. "How kind of him," he said. "I really must remember to thank him for his generosity. Oh, there's the bus."

"Jii-chan," Kaito said, sliding onto a stool at the bar. "How's business?"

"A bit slow," Jii admitted. "I guess everyone's out watching the show this evening. I take it this is your new student?" He nodded at Michael.

"That's him," Kaito said. "Not much to look at, but--Hey!" He dodged a flying spoon.

"You're lucky I haven't got any ice cream," Michael said, frowning at him.

"Oh, right, Jii," Kaito said, turning back to the old man. "Could you get a couple chocolate milkshakes, please?"

"Sure, coming right up," Jii said, taking a couple cups. "By the way, about what you asked for--it should be here day after tomorrow."

"Good," said Kaito, accepting his milkshake. He took a long drink. "Tonight wasn't too bad, and I liked your improvisation," he glanced at Michael. "Tomorrow's heist will be interesting. They're apparently keeping the jewel locked in the exact center of one of the large skyscrapers downtown. Every room and every hallway for three floors up and down is to have two guards who will alert everyone if they see Kid."

Michael tapped his fingers on the counter. "Ventilation shafts?"

"They're apparently unguarded," Kaito said, "though they're too small for an adult to fit through."

"But not a kid," Michael said. "I think I see where this is going."

"Exactly," Kaito said with a smirk.


	10. Chapter 9

"Floor 28, no activity."

"Floor 29, nothing."

"Floor 30. No activity."

"Floor 31, we've got nothing."

"Floor 32, all clear."

"Floor 33 reporting, everything's quiet."

"Floor 34, no sign of Kid."

The men in the control van murmured quietly to each other.

"This is Nakamori, I'm in the room with the jewel. No sign of that blasted

Kid."

Inspector Nakamori looked around the small room. There was no way Kid was going to get this jewel, he thought. Unless he could shrink, he added wryly to himself.

He looked at his watch. Almost time.

There was a clattering sound in the ceiling. "What--" The other officer stood, looking at the air vent in the center of the ceiling.

"That's not big enough for--" Nakamori began. Then the vent popped out of the ceiling and crashed to the floor.

The officer coughed. "Sleeping gas," he gasped, just before collapsing. Inspector Nakamori tried to call for help on the radio, but it slipped out of his hand as he fell.

Michael peered cautiously out of the vent. _Good, they're out_. Checking the small rod he'd tied his rope to as an anchor, he dropped his rope through the hole and lowered himself down. It was the work of a moment to switch the stone for a fake, grab Nakamori's radio, and get back into the duct.

He met up with Kaito on the roof. When he saw the radio, he grinned. "All right," he said. "Stage two."

"Emergency!" Nakamori's voice bellowed over the radio in the van. "All units to the holding room, on the double!"

Kaito, mingled with the rest of the officers in a police uniform, was among the first to arrive. They shook Nakamori awake, and one of the policemen tried to look into the duct to see if Kid was still there.

"What happened?" Nakamori murmured, his eyes still glazed. "Where's Kid?"

"Gone," said the policeman, climbing down. "But the jewel's still here."

"What?" Nakamori said, blinking. "It is?" He looked at the case.

"You must've scared him off when you called for help," one of the officers suggested. "He left before reinforcements arrived."

"O-oh, yes," Nakamori said, rubbing his eyes. "He escaped, you say?"

"Apparently, he crawled through this duct," Kaito said, examining the small vent. "But I don't see how anyone could fit through."

Nakamori stared at it in disbelief. "Then he'll be heading for the roof, you idiots! Send the choppers!" He raced off towards the stairs, followed by most of the police.

Michael was well hidden on the roof of the stairwell, and they didn't see him. They scanned the horizon, eagerly looking for Kaito's white hang-glider.

"He's got to be there somewhere," Nakamori muttered anxiously.

"I don't see him," asked a voice just above his head.

Nakamori nearly leapt out of his clothes. "K-Kid!"

Kaitou Kid stood up on top of the roof access stairwell. Holding the gem up to the moonlight, he examined it carefully. "Evening, everyone."

Then he swished his cape and disappeared. When they saw him next, he was in the sky, flying away on his white hang-glider.

"Very nice," Kaito said to Michael as he held for dear life onto Kaito's hang glider. "Nakamori got the impression that he managed to send a message just before going unconscious and was awakened moments later. My reputation as a miracle worker has, so far, been upheld."

"I'd like to see Conan's face when he sees the story," Michael said. "Kid steals gem, escapes through impossibly small ventilation shaft."

"Yeah," Kaito laughed. "How's he going to explain that one, I wonder? Especially since the vent was unscrewed from the inside as per eyewitness report of Nakamori and that other officer."

"I suppose it was good that I dropped the screwdriver, then," Michael said, adjusting his grip. "Now they know it wasn't some mechanism that automatically caused the vent to drop."

"True," Kaito smirked. "Hang on!" They landed, none too gently, on the roof of a building. "Know where we are?"

Michael looked around. "Don't tell me--police headquarters?"

Kaito grinned. "You got it."

Michael couldn't help smiling. "So, then, Nakamori will arrive to the relative safety of his office, only to discover Kid's next notice on his desk?"

"Actually," Kaito said with a grin, "it'll be on the projector screen." He pulled a corner of a large poster out of his jacket, then shoved it back.

Michael laughed. "You better hurry."

Kaito nodded and quickly started down the roof access stairwell. He was back in a few minutes and they finished the trip home uneventfully.

They both slept well that night.


	11. Chapter 10

"All right," Kaito said at lunch. "Today's your big day."

"What do you mean?" Michael asked, completely unsuspecting.

"Today, we introduce Kid Jr.," Kaito said, grinning.

Michael put down his food. "Junior?" he protested.

"Unless you have a better idea," Kaito said, taking another bite.

Michael hmmphed and began eating again. After a moment, he said, "So then you found a monocle in my size?"

Kaito snickered. "You mean that one?" he asked, pointing to the one which appeared on Michael's face even as he spoke.

Michael jumped involuntarily at having something thrust so abruptly so close to his eye. "I take it that was a yes," he said, swallowing quickly.

"Yes," said Kaito. "Jii said he'd have a cape this afternoon, so I figured I'd take you out on a spin to get the hang of using the hang glider."

"Cool," Michael said, his eyes shining. "You know, I think I like this Kaitou Kid stuff."

"Kaitou Kid _Junior_," Kaito corrected him with a wink.

Michael scowled. "'Little Kid' I can tolerate, but 'Kid Junior' is out of the question."

"We'll see what the media says," Kaito said with a grin.

Once again, a dove fluttered into the air.

"It's the same trick as last time," Nakamori said to the officers. "While our attention is focused on the bird, he sneaks in from the crowd." They scanned the crowd, watching for any suspicious characters. Meanwhile, the dove landed, unhindered, on the glass case.

Nakamori turned to look at the jewel. He was just in time to see the dove engulfed in a puff of smoke.

When it cleared, there was a miniature version of Kid perched on the case.

Nakamori's jaw dropped and everyone gasped. For a moment, no one moved.

Michael looked over himself with mock consternation. "Oops," he said. He snapped his fingers and was engulfed in another cloud of smoke. This time the real Kid stood on the pedestal.

"Ah, much better," Kid said, stretching.

Nakamori's jaw was almost on the floor. He snapped it closed. "Get him!" he hollered.

In one swift motion, Kid smashed the top of the case and seized the crystal from its cushion. When the police were almost upon him, he snapped his fingers. There was another puff of smoke, and the dove fluttered towards an open skylight and disappeared.

Dumbfounded, Nakamori stared at the skylight. Then he let loose with a string of expletives that could only come from Inspector Nakamori when he was bested yet again by the elusive Kid the Phantom Thief.

"Did you see that?" Michael heard a child's voice excitedly talking.

"Oh, hi, guys," he said, coming upon the Detective Boys.

"Michael-kun!" Mitsuhiko exclaimed. "Did you see that?"

"Yeah, that was cool," Michael agreed.

"It was a simple substitution," Conan said calmly. "When the officers weren't looking, that boy popped up and switched with the bird. While he attracted their attention, the real Kid slipped in and then switched places with the boy in the second puff of smoke. Then he just let the dove go in the last one."

"It was still cool," Michael argued. "It'd make a great trick."

"The question is," Haibara said softly, "Who is Kid's assistant?"

"That's true," Michael nodded. "He had to have been pretty good, to be able to slip into the crowd after switching like that."

Conan and Haibara glared at him.

"What?" he said, looking between them. "Oh, come on!"

"He's about the right size," Haibara said quietly to Conan.

"And he's been learning magic," Conan nodded.

"What, now you think I'm Kid?" he protested.

"Oh, there you are, Michael-kun," said a familiar voice. "Come on, we need to pick up some things on the way home."

"Oh, Kaito-niichan," Michael said, glancing up. "These are the other guys in the Detective Boys," he said, gesturing. "Ayumi, Genta, Mitsuhiko, Conan, and Haibara-san. Guys, this is Kuroba Kaito, the son of the world-famous magician Kuroba Toichi."

"Oh, you're the one who taught Michael how to do all those magic tricks?" Genta exclaimed.

"Ah, yes," Kaito said, glancing at Michael. "He's pretty smart, but he has quite a ways to go yet."

"What can you do?" Mitsuhiko asked him.

"Yes, show us!" Ayumi begged excitedly.

"Well... all right," Kaito said. He spent a few minutes showing off while Conan spent his time seeing through most, though nowhere near all, of Kaito's tricks. He was gracious enough not to reveal the secret during the performance, at least, Michael reflected.

Kaito finally glanced at his watch. "Uh-oh, we're supposed to be home soon, and we still need to run by the market," he said anxiously. "I'll see you guys later, all right?"

"OK!" they chorused. Michael waved goodbye and the pair set off towards the nearest bus stop.

When they were almost to the bus stop, Kaito reached down and pulled something out of Michael's shoe. Gesturing for him to be silent, he held it out to him.

Michael recognized it from his talk with Agasa. It was a miniature transmitter, similar in principle to the detective badges, so it could be picked up on Conan's glasses.

Glancing around, he saw his chance and slipped it into the pocket of a passing businessman.

Michael searched his other shoe and his pockets to make sure that was the only transmitter. It was.

"Sorry, Kaito-niichan," he said. "I must have gotten careless."

"Yes," Kaito said briefly. "You can't afford to lower your guard around a detective, even for a second."

They made the rest of the trip in silence.


	12. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer:** Once again, I own nothing but Michael Okuda.

Oh and thanks for the reviews so far.

* * *

"Michael-kun," Kaito prodded him.

"Uungh?" Michael rolled over sleepily.

"Wake up."

"What?" he murmured.

"Look what's in the paper," Kaito said, holding it up.

Michael squinted at the headlines. Not quite awake yet, he rubbed his eyes and tried again.

"Debut of Kid Jr.?" he read. Sighing dramatically, he flopped back over into his bed and covered his face with his hands.

Kaito laughed. "Anyway, breakfast is ready."

Michael looked at his watch. "Nine-thirty already?"

Kaito looked at his watch in surprise. "Yeah, I guess so. Good thing school's out, huh?"

"Yep," agreed Michael. He rolled out of bed and picked up the newspaper. "Oh, good," he said, laughing. "They got Nakamori's face when I popped up there."

"Yeah!" Kaito chortled. "That was priceless!"

"I think I'm going to keep that picture," Michael said, grinning.

"Definitely," Kaito said, laughing. "But come on, breakfast won't wait all day."

"Inspector Nakamori," the reporter said, "do you have any comments on Kid's new accomplice, dubbed 'Kid Jr.'?"

"Well, assuming it is an accomplice and not some trick with mirrors or something," Nakamori said, "Kid's trying to make the police department look like idiots by having a child stealing jewelry from right in front of us. Well, I won't stand for it. If you're watching this, Kid, or Kid Jr., or whoever you are, you're not escaping the next heist!"

"Good luck with that," Kaito said dryly, switching off the TV.

Nakamori watched in disbelief as the child materialized out of the smoke cloud and picked up the necklace. "It's him!" he hollered. "The accomplice! Get him!"

Michael somersaulted over the ranks of policemen coming for him and made for the window. Just then a helicopter with a spotlight rose up, shining directly on the window.

Michael pulled out his pistol. Twirling it once, he aimed at the window and fired. The resulting cloud of high-velocity sand particles smashed the window, and Michael, climbing onto the sill, leaped to the helicopter, somehow managing to grab hold of one of the runners. The pilot, confused, did a series of maneuvers, trying to find him.

Michael finally let go and dove straight down, towards the crowd. He clutched his hat and tucked the necklace into his pocket.

Just then there was a flash of white, and Kaito caught him neatly and swooped away on the hang-glider. "You're not ready to try blending in with the crowd yet," he scolded him. "Remember the last time you tried that?"

Michael nodded. "Sorry," he apologized.

"No problem," Kaito said, angling away from the buildings. "Ready? One, two, three!" He let go of Michael.

Michael snapped out the hang glider as he'd been taught. "Yahoo!" he hollered.

"And we've got a helicopter on our tail," Kaito said, looking back. "Let's split up and meet at the usual place. Use your radio if you need help."

"All right," Michael waved and turned to the right. Kaito swerved to the left and the helicopter pilot, confused for a moment, finally turned left after Kaito.

That was good, because Michael wasn't sure he was good enough with the hang glider to outrun a helicopter yet. He took the scenic route to the park, taking advantage of the lack of pursuit to practice maneuvering. When he arrived, Kaito was waiting for him, as expected.

"Not bad tonight," Kaito commented. "You're getting pretty good. I think soon you'll be ready to do some real heists."

"Weren't those real heists?" Michael asked, mildly annoyed.

"No," Kaito said calmly, "those were more of practice sessions. You always had me to back you up, and there wasn't really anything complicated that you had to face--barring navigating through those air ducts, anyway."

"So what's coming up, then?" Michael asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Have you ever heard of Suzuki Jirokichi?" Kaito asked, flashing him a mischievous grin.


	13. Chapter 12

"Suzuki-san!" the reporter called. "Do you think you can catch Kid this time, especially since he has a sidekick now?"

"Bah!" Suzuki Jirokichi spat. "He's had an accomplice before. Having two public figures will just make him twice as easy to catch. Once we get one of them, the partner can't be too far behind."

"Which is why you're going to have to be careful," Kaito warned Michael. "This guy is going to throw everything he's got at us. More probably, he's going to throw everything he's got at you, since he believes you to be the easiest catch."

"Hooray," said Michael sarcastically, glaring at the man on the screen. "Why don't you go pick on someone your own size?"

"Because he's already beaten them all," Kaito said. "Have you ever seen his trophy room?"

"No," Michael said. "As a matter of fact I've never even heard of the man before today."

Kaito snickered. "Don't let him hear you say that. He has medals and awards in just about everything you can imagine. He's said that the only thing that's keeping him from resting peacefully is knowing that he hasn't yet caught Kid the Phantom Thief. Apparently, because of one of my heists, one of his awards was relegated to the third page of the newspaper instead of the first."

"Ouch," said Michael, grinning. "How could you be so heartless?"

"Anyway," Kaito said, smirking, "he's tried to trap me several times. Needless to say, he's always failed, but that Edogawa brat made it awful tricky."

"I can imagine," Michael rolled his eyes. "I suppose he'll probably be there."

"No doubt," Kaito said cheerfully. "But I'll take care of Hakuba if you take care of Edogawa, all right?"

"Deal," Michael said, grinning.

* * *

"We have the diamond in the basement of one of these four buildings," Jirokichi said, pointing to a wireframe map of the area. "All four have a series of traps and surprises in all possible passages to the basement. There is no way Kid or his accomplice will be able to escape from all of them and get out with the diamond, or my name isn't Suzuki Jirokichi."

Edogawa Conan, crammed into the surveillance van with Mouri Kogoro, Jirokichi, two operators, Inspector Nakamori, one police officer, and one disgruntled Hakuba Saguru, was silently disagreeing with the adventurer.

Michael Okuda, wandering around the crowd disguised as a young girl, was also disagreeing with Suzuki-san. Especially since he was so kind as to provide me with a live feed from the van, Michael added silently. Hopefully they'd be tracking his progress and give him some tips as to what to expect. But anyway, they'd need to search four buildings to find the jewel, unless Kaito had a better idea, so...

His earpiece buzzed. "Hey, kid," Kaito's voice came over the radio.

"Yeah," Michael said, using a girly voice so as not to attract attention.

"You got that, right? Four possible locations. Knowing Jirokichi-san, he'll have fakes planted in the other three, so let's just collect them all."

"Two and two, then?" Michael suggested.

"You got it. I've already briefed you on what to expect from the traps he's set. But don't let your guard down, there may be more we don't know about. Be especially careful about sleeping gas, it would be really bad if you get knocked out."

"You too," Michael reminded him.

"Of course," was the only reply.

"All right," Michael murmured, "it's showtime!"

* * *

"Suzuki-san! Someone's broken into Building A!" announced one of the operators.

"And Building C," added the other, examining his screen. "It looks like the real Kid."

Michael scanned the area for human guards; there weren't any. "Pity," he commented to Kid. "I was hoping to play Indiana Jones for an audience."

"There's hidden cameras in here," Kaito replied quickly. "So get going."

Michael swapped his Kid hat for a white fedora. "I'm on it," he said, in his best Indiana Jones imitation.

In the van, Kogoro muttered, "What does he think he's doing?"

The first trap was easy to spot. Michael triggered it by tossing a small object underneath. There was a rattling and a cage slammed down in front of him. Without hesitating, Michael climbed up the side of the cage and then down the other side.

"That stinks," Hakuba commented.

"The trap, or the escape?" Conan asked.

"Shut up, I can't hear myself think!" Jirokichi snapped.

The next trap was a bit more difficult. As Michael examined the walls, he noted two slots where the walls of the cage apparently slid out. They went clear up to the ceiling.

In the van, they could see Kid Junior look up at the ceiling and say something. Then he walked confidently into the trap.

The walls slid into place with a solid ka-thunk. Michael glanced around for a moment, then pulled out his pistol. Giving it a dramatic twirl for the benefit of any cameras in the area, he pointed it straight up and pulled the trigger.

The resulting cloud of debris would have all but buried the boy, had he not leaped aside so quickly. Looking up at the gaping hole in the ceiling, Michael climbed the far side of the cage, then leaped to the opening and crawled inside. He crashed through the ceiling on the other side a short time later.

"He's good," said Conan.

"Or the traps aren't," pointed out Hakuba.

"I said shut up!" Jirokichi glared at them menacingly.

The next trap managed to catch Michael unawares, much to the glee of Suzuki-san and most of the others in the van.

Michael looked up at the sheer walls of the pit. It was probably about fifteen feet high; glancing down, he noted that the padding was none too thick. So, time for plan B.

"What are those?" Nakamori asked, leaning in to get a closer look at what Michael was holding.

"Magnets?" Hakuba said. "Don't tell me the pit's walls are made of steel."

"Shut up or I'll have you thrown out of the van!" bellowed Jirokichi.

Michael escaped from the pit easily, sticking out his tongue at the next camera he saw. He didn't encounter any more traps until he reached the floor where the jewel--or one of its doppelgangers--was being stored.

Metal bars slammed home across the hallway, one after another, until there were no less than six sets of inch-thick metal bars blocking Michael's path toward the jewel. "Not bad," he murmured appreciatively.

The walls were made of concrete, so that wasn't an option. The ceiling was actually the underside of the floor above, with no space in between.

"So, let's try this, then," Michael said to himself.

"What the--" Jirokichi's face went white. "Is he going to--"

Nakamori let loose with a string of expletives. "Children playing with dynamite!?"

"You're going to let him blow himself up?" Hakuba snapped.

"Wh-" Whoever was speaking was interrupted by a white glare on the monitor and a loud burst of static. Then the camera died.

"Uh-oh," said Conan. "That can't be good."

"No, we've still got the camera in the room with the jewel," the operator said. "It looks like control systems in that hallway are down, though--" He gasped. "He's in!"

"What!" everyone exclaimed. Sure enough, the young Kid was inside the room with the jewel and approaching the stand where the stone was kept.

"How'd he get in there so fast?" Conan asked. "Even with dynamite?"

Switching back to the stereotypical Kid top hat, Michael approached the stand. At one point he bent down and examined the floor. There was a triple row of nozzles. Odd... sleeping gas, maybe? But no, not with that many. There was only one thing that could be.

"Don't let them go off yet!" Jirokichi ordered one of the operators hastily.

Michael stepped carefully across and took the diamond.

Sure enough, there was a whoosh and flames roared up in a ring around him. Michael grinned. Now for the star attraction.

Tucking the diamond securely into an inner pocket, Michael pulled out a pair of pliers. When it came to firewalls, he was an expert.

He bent down and pried on the metal gratings on the floor. As expected, they didn't budge.

Carefully, so as not to burn his hands, Michael reached down into the flame with the pliers and crimped one nozzle shut. Then another, and another, until he'd created a path large enough to pass through. And so, he did.

It wouldn't do to leave the same way he'd come in, of course, so Michael found the elevator shaft--with the elevator securely locked to the bottom, how convenient. Wedging himself into a corner, he managed to open the emergency door on the roof and climbed out. Then he snapped an electric motor to the cable and ascended rapidly to the machinery room on the roof.

"I'm out," he told Kaito.

"With the jewel?" Kaito said. "Good. I've gotten my two. Meet me at the roof of Building D."

Michael ran to the edge and leaped off, triggering his hang glider. Building D's roof was a bit lower than Building A's, so it was easy to get over there.

When he arrived, he noted with some interest the police officers pouring into the building below.

"A bit slow," Kaito said, landing on the roof just behind him, "but not too bad."

"You should realize I have about twice the distance to cover, since I'm about half as big as you," pointed out Michael.

"That means you should be able to escape twice as fast," retorted Kaito. "Anyway, let me see the one you got." He examined it closely, comparing it to the other two. "Good. We've got the real one. Now, should we go for the media, or should we close up shop?"

Michael was looking down at the crowd with a pair of binoculars. "There's a news crew," he said, pointing.

Kaito took the binoculars. "Yeah," he said, focusing on them. "Shall we go have a chat with them?"

Michael paused and slipped on a girl's wig. "Ready," he said in a female voice.

"You make a cute girl," Kaito smirked.

* * *

"Kaitou Kid and sidekick just jumped off of Building D!" announced a reporter, craning his neck to see the two white spots hurtling down through the air. "It looks like they're heading for the crowd!"

"Move aside!" his burly assistant ordered, forcing the crowd back to clear a spot for the Kid and his partner.

"Don't let them get away!" hollered Inspector Nakamori, trying to wade through a crowd of people who seemed to be trying to slow him down.

"Kaitou Kid!" the reporter called. "A question--Is it true that your sidekick is a child?"

"No," Michael said in a girl's voice. "I'm really 32, but an unfortunate incident with a tooth fairy when I was a kid left me like this permanently."

"A girl?" said the reporter, not quite sure whether or not to take Kid's assistant seriously.

"Yes. And one more thing," 'she' added. "Call me Carmen. NOT Junior."

"Ah, OK," the startled reporter said as the pair vanished in front of his eyes.

* * *

Kaito and Michael, disguised of course, quickly made their way to an alley behind the crowd where Kaito had a motorbike waiting for them. "Get on," he told Michael, swinging one leg over.

"Not so fast, Kaitou Kid," said a _very_ annoyingly familiar voice.

"Ah, Tantei-kun," Kaito said, snapping his helmet on. "I wondered when you'd show up."

"This ends tonight," Conan said, cranking the dial on his shoe and inflating the soccer ball.

"Isn't that what you said last time?" Kaito wondered.

Michael whisked out his pistol and fired a single shot, right at Conan's chest.

Conan staggered, clutching his chest, as red spurted from his jacket. Time seemed to stand still as he looked at the girl still aiming the smoking pistol at him.

Then, it slowly dawned on him that he wasn't injured. He slowly pulled his hand away. "Paint?"

"Come on," Kid's partner said calmly, shoving the pocket pistol back into her jacket. "You've never played paintball?"

Conan swore and drew back his foot to kick the soccer ball. He stopped when he realized it was deflating already, but by the time he found something else to kick, Kid was gone.


	14. Chapter 13

"Ah, Kaito," someone said. Someone with a British accent. Michael peeked over the edge of the couch. Sure enough, Hakuba was at the door, chatting with Kaito.

"What's this with you working with some kid?" Hakuba accused, glaring at him.

Kaito sighed dramatically. "For the last time, Hakuba, I am NOT Kid! And the only kid I've been 'working' with is a distant relative who's staying here while his parents are on vacation."

"Oho!" Hakuba exclaimed triumphantly.

"Hi," Michael said, coming out from behind the couch. "You speak English?" he asked in that language.

"Yes, I do," Hakuba said, blinking.

"I thought you sounded like a Briton," Michael commented.

"Yes, I lived for a while in Great Britain... you speak English very well."

"Of course I do," Michael retorted. "I'm from America. You kind of have to learn English."

"America?" Hakuba said, looking him over.

"Yes, it's a small island off the coast of Great Britain," Michael said dryly. "Just go straight west, you can't miss it."

"I know where it is," Hakuba snapped. "Geez, you're as annoying as--" He glanced over at where Kaito had been just a moment before. "--Kaito," he finished, looking around suspiciously. "Where'd he go?"

"Maybe he remembered he had to do something," Michael suggested innocently.

"Yes, but it's _what_ he had to do that worries me," Hakuba muttered, looking around nervously.

"Uh, Saguru-san," Michael said, looking up at him. "There's something on your back."

"What?" Hakuba reached back and peeled off a piece of paper. "Look up." He did, almost involuntarily. A moment later he wished he hadn't.

"Fell for it again," chortled Kaito, dropping to the floor as Hakuba glared at him, sopping wet. He grabbed Kaito's shirt and was about to use it as a towel when he thought better of it and just wiped his face on his sleeve instead.

"Kaito, I should just kill you now and get it over with," Hakuba threatened as Kaito danced just out of his reach. Michael watched Kaito's antics in amusement.

After exchanging a few more verbal taunts, Hakuba retreated and left with no new information, just wet hair.

"Well, that was entertaining," Michael commented. "You should do that for a living."

"What?" Kaito asked. "Annoying people?"

"Annoying Hakuba," Michael said. "On stage."

"If we could get him there," Kaito nodded.

"We--" Michael started to say something, then stopped. A shiver ran down his back as he turned to see a tall girl standing in the doorway. She hadn't knocked.

"Oh, Koizumi-san," Kaito said calmly. "Good morning."

Michael recognized her then as the witch from Kaito's lineup.

She glanced coldly at Kaito, then at Michael. "So this is your new helper," she said, bending down to Michael's level. She stared him in the eye for a full second. Michael didn't flinch. Relenting finally, she stood up.

"Don't go tonight," she warned.

"Go where?" Kaito asked innocently.

"You know what I'm talking about," she said, scowling at him. "I have been warned that if you attempt another robbery tonight, you will not survive."

"That Lucifer guy you keep talking about?" Kaito asked.

"Yes," she said briefly.

"You know," Kaito said, shoving his hands in his pockets, "it seems to me that your warnings to me have never changed Kid's mind. Maybe it's because I'm NOT Kid?"

"Or maybe it's because you're an idiot," Akako snorted. She turned and was about to leave. Then she paused and glanced at Michael. "You play a very convincing girl," she told him. Then she was gone.

Kaito sighed and folded his arms.

"Do you believe her?" Michael asked.

"She's been doomsaying for a while now," Kaito said, "but I've always been able to pull through."

"I see," Michael said, looking lost in thought. "But hey, she liked my acting."

* * *

"They're idiots," Akako snapped, hurling the nearest object at the wall.

"Yes, master," her servant agreed. "That's why--"

"Oh, shut up!" she snapped. "I'm not in the mood."

She paced for a bit. Then she turned to the assistant. "Prepare my things."

"Yes, master," he said obediently, scurrying away.


	15. Chapter 14

Conan scanned the crowd. "See anything, Hattori?"

"Yes," Heiji said flatly. "People. But nothing that screams 'I'm Kaitou Kid!' or--what is it they're calling his sidekick?"

"Kaitou Carmen," Conan answered. "Apparently that's what she requested."

"Hey, there's that Hakuba guy," Heiji said, pointing.

"Where?" Conan craned his neck to see. "Oh, I see him."

Hakuba was wading through the crowd, evidently looking for someone.

"Hey, let's go see him," Conan suggested, turning towards the stairs.

"What? Why would we want to run into that stuck-up Brit?" Heiji protested, following Conan reluctantly.

"Well, if it isn't the hot-blooded Osaka detective," Hakuba said, smiling.

"Oh, it's the stuck-up half Brit," Heiji retorted, looking for Conan, who had conveniently disappeared.

"Stuck-up half Brit?" Kaito said, poking his head out of the crowd. "You forgot the 'pesky, annoying' part."

"Kaito," Hakuba said smoothly. "Where's your cohort?"

"You mean Michael?" Kaito said, glancing at Heiji. "He went off to look for Conan, why?"

Heiji raised his eyebrows. "Michael? That name sounds English."

"He's from America," Kaito said, craning his neck above the crows. "And I think he might be lost."

"Where did you leave him?" Heiji asked.

"Ow!" someone yelped. "Haibara, knock it off!"

"Uh, right there, I guess," Kaito said, looking towards the source of the noise.

"Sorry," Haibara said, giving Michael's cheek one final yank. "But, you know, Kid's new partner is a child, so we have to check everyone," she said with a smirk which indicated she was none too sorry. "She could be disguised as you, or Conan, or even myself."

"So then," Michael said, reaching towards her face. He quickly, and far more gently than Haibara had, ran his hand under her ear.

Haibara frowned. "You think that's enough to see if I'm wearing a disguise?" she scolded.

"I ran my finger along the back of your head," Michael said calmly. "There would have been a seam if you were wearing a mask. I used no more force than was necessary because _I_ am a gentleman."

"Oh, sure," Haibara said sarcastically, a bit stung by the insult. She turned her back. "So are you going to get Kaitou Carmen's autograph too?"

"Of course," Michael said, snorting. "I'd have gotten it before but she wanted to wait and see what the media decided to call her first."

"What girl would want to be named by the media?" Haibara snorted.

"Apparently, she didn't," Michael reminded her. "Maybe she was wanting to see if they had any better ideas than she did." He paused. "That's funny," he commented. "I thought I saw--oh, there they are."

"Who?" Haibara questioned, trying to see through the crowd.

"Genta-kun, Mitsuhiko-kun, and Ayumi-chan," Michael said, slipping through the crowd.

"Hey, guys," he said, breaking into a bit of a clearing.

"Michael-kun!" Mitsuhiko exclaimed.

"And Ai-chan," Ayumi added. "Where's Conan-kun?"

"I was hoping he was with you," Michael said, looking around. "I was trying to find him."

"We could call him," Genta said, pulling out his badge.

"Oh, yeah," Michael said. "I forgot about the detective badges." He reached into one pocket, then another. "Oh shoot... I think I left mine at home." He pulled out a pack of cards, some handkerchiefs, two flowers, a couple trick coins, and various other paraphernalia, before giving up with a sigh. "Oh well."

"Hey, Conan," Genta said into his badge. "Where are you?"

"Right here," said Conan's voice from just behind them. Everyone jumped.

"Oh, Conan-kun!" exclaimed Mitsuhiko sheepishly. "You startled us."

"What are you guys doing here?" Conan asked, sounding annoyed.

"We're going to catch Kaitou Carmen!" Ayumi announced.

Conan blinked. "Oh," he said at last. "How?"

"Carmen's just a kid like us," Genta said.

"Yes, so if anyone can predict what she'll do next, it'd be a child, right?" Mitsuhiko argued.

"You're forgetting one thing," Haibara said, smiling slightly. "She's a female."

"So?" Genta said, looking annoyed.

"So she'll be unpredictable and illogical," Michael said, grinning at Haibara mischeviously.

She glanced at him. "Yes, something like that."

"Well, we do have both you and Ayumi-chan," Michael pointed out. "So if you two would be so kind as to lend us your unpredictable-ness, we'll have that much better of a chance to catch her, right?"

"Why do _you_ want to catch her?" Haibara frowned.

"The autograph," Michael reminded her.

"You're going to get a girl's autograph?" she retorted.

"I'm going to get a magician's autograph," Michael smirked. "The gender is irrelevant."

"So, if I was a magician, you'd want my autograph?" she suggested with what Michael decided was an evil grin.

"I tried that," he reminded her. "Remember how well _that_ worked."

"What are you talking about?" Ayumi wanted to know.

Michael and Haibara glanced at each other. "Nothing," they said at the same time.


	16. Chapter 15

"This way," Michael said, leading the group through one room after another.

"Are you sure we're not lost?" Mitsuhiko asked doubtfully.

"Yes," Michael said briefly. "Right around this corner."

They turned the corner and found a small window set at an angle in the wall. Looking through, they could see several dozen policemen hidden about the room in various places where they'd have been unseen to an observer on the ground.

Michael noted the positions of the policemen carefully. "If I'm right," he said slowly, "Kid will come in right down there," he pointed at a pane of glass. Right on cue, it shattered, and the white-caped thief landed neatly on the floor.

"Hmm, that's odd," Conan said, looking through the window at the room. "He doesn't have his sidekick with him."

"She won't show up," Michael said, taking a turn at the window. "Not down there, anyway."

"Hmm?" Conan glanced at him. "How do you know?"

"Because," Michael said, grinning. He reached up and peeled a mask off his face dramatically.

"She's right here," Kaitou Carmen finished. "So, you think you can catch me, do you?"

Everyone gasped. 'Carmen' took advantage of the opportunity to dive between Ayumi and Mitsuhiko. 'She' clicked a dial on her shoes; rubber wheels popped out and she came up skating. Conan inflated his soccer ball and shoved his way to the hallway.

Michael paused at the corner of the hallway to stick out his tongue at Conan. Then he zipped down the hall just before the soccer ball whizzed through the spot he'd been a moment before and bounced off the wall.

* * *

Kaito glanced up as a soccer ball crashed through the small window above him and grinned. Michael must be in full swing right now with Conan and his gang.

Michael had already told him exactly where the police where hiding. Their positions left one open spot where he could escape.

However, he reflected, there were no less than three really good detectives on the scene. Four if you count Mouri Kogoro, which Kaito didn't. He doubted that they'd let him get away with such an easy escape.

So, it was back the way he'd come. The whole thought process took about three-fourths of a second.

"Now!" Nakamori bellowed. The policemen leaped out from their hiding places around the room and charged toward Kid and the glittering jewel.

Kaito smirked. Sure enough, neither Hakuba nor that Osaka kid was among them. He pocketed the jewel, then vanished just as the police piled on top of where he'd been.

* * *

"Stop right there, Kaitou Kid," warned Hakuba in his annoying British accent.

Kaito glanced back to see Hattori Heiji--Tantei-kun's friend--blocking the other end of the hallway. He grinned and leaned on the wall casually. "Did either of you study the architecture of this place?"

"No," Heiji said, not taking his eyes off Kid.

"So then, you don't know," Kaito mused.

"Know what?" Hakuba snapped, moving closer.

"Old buildings like these," Kaito said, tapping the wall with his fist. "When they're renovated, many things change..." He found what he was looking for. "But some things," he said, drawing back his foot and kicking the wall with all his might, "remain, hidden from sight." He peered into the gaping hole and smiled to himself. "What do you know, a secret passage." He glanced up at Hakuba and Heiji. "Good night, great detectives," he said cheerfully before disappearing into the hole.

Heiji dove in after him. Hakuba rummaged around in his pockets until he came up with a flashlight, then followed the two cautiously.

* * *

Michael skated down the hall at full speed, his cape flapping behind him. He glanced back; Conan was chasing him as fast as he could, but wasn't making any headway.

He recalled the layout of the floor. Let's see, he thought. Second corridor on the right. He swerved sharply into the opening and skidded on the polished marble floor. Leaping into the air, he clicked the wheels back into the shoes and landed with some semblance of dignity. He picked himself up and kept running.

"And then, third room on the left," he said to himself, pulling up short in front of the door. He tried it; it was locked. Not for long, though, as he opened it two seconds later. Inside were several suits of armor; Michael hid behind one of them and waited.

Conan looked cautiously into the room he'd seen Carmen disappear into. There were numerous hiding places, but not near enough if they searched thoroughly. "Genta, Ayumi," he said. "You two guard the door. If Carmen goes towards it, yell." He turned to Mitsuhiko and Haibara. "You two and I will split up and search the room. It shouldn't be too hard to find her."

Then the lights went out.

Everyone switched their watch lights on, but the room was pretty big so they didn't do much good. Still, they pressed on, searching doggedly for the phantom that kept vanishing every time they thought they saw her.

At one point, Genta and Ayumi yelped, but it turned out that it was a shadow being cast by one of the watch lights. They were about to despair when a single light went on.

It pointed directly at Kaitou Carmen, perched neatly on the head of one of the suits of armor. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," she said cheerfully. "Unfortunately, it seems I must be taking my leave now. I'd love to stay and chat, but I have a TV show that I don't want to miss." She twisted the decorative horns on the helmet.

A section of the wall behind her slid open part way, then jammed. She shrugged. "See you later," she said, diving through the crack. Conan somehow managed to slip through too before it closed.

"What TV show?" Ayumi asked to nobody in particular.


	17. Chapter 16

There was a thud as two running bodies impacted each other.

Heiji and Hakuba came in from one end of the narrow stone corridor; Conan came in from the other end. In the middle were Kaitou Kid and his sidekick, who had just managed to untangle themselves and leap to their feet.

"It's over, Kid," Hakuba sneered.

Kaito looked around. They were surrounded, and the thick stone walls didn't seem likely to provide an escape route. He glanced at Michael, who had his arms folded calmly across his chest.

Michael held up his hand, counting down silently on his fingers. Five... four... three...

Conan raised his watch and aimed it carefully at Michael. Nothing happened when he tried to click it open.

He tried again. Still nothing.

Carmen held up her own watch. "I took the liberty of trading watches when the lights went out."

Conan muttered something under his breath and cocked his shoes.

"I think we should act now," Kid suggested to Carmen.

"No duh," she retorted, whipping out her pistol and twirling it theatrically. She aimed it at the ceiling.

"No, don't!" hollered Hakuba and Conan at the same time. They dove out of the way, expecting the ceiling to come crashing down on their heads.

Carmen and Kid winked at each other. Then there was a puff of smoke and they were gone.

"Follow them!" Heiji and Conan dashed down the corridor the two thieves had disappeared into.

Hakuba glared after them, muttering to himself as he picked himself up and headed down the passage after the foursome.

* * *

Michael took the lead, relying on the maps of the passages he'd memorized to navigate the maze. They took one turn and then another; it wouldn't be difficult to get lost in here, he reflected.

"There," Kaito said, pointing to an area where sunlight was streaming in.

Michael checked his memory. "Yeah," he agreed. They headed for it and discovered a doorway to...

Nowhere.

Outside the door was empty space.


	18. Chapter 17

Author's Note(s)  
As noted in my profile, my Internet computer that I use for managing and/or uploading my fanfics recently died. So I'm doing almost everything on the DOS laptop now, instead of just the story. Some changes you can expect are less(meaning no) formatting(like you're missing out on much...)

* * *

Conan raced toward the opening. They were gone; there wasn't a hang-glider in sight. He was about to turn back inside when there was a rattling above him and a couple pebbles fell on his head. He looked up just in time to see a corner of a white cape disappearing into a window on the next floor up.

"They're on the next floor up!" Conan called to Heiji. He seized a crack in the masonry and began to climb up after them.

Then his hand slipped. "Waahh!!" He tumbled backwards, falling towards the ground, several stories below.

His fall was abruptly cut short by a hand which caught one of his legs.

Heiji hauled him back through the window. "What are you trying to do, get yourself killed?"

"Says the hot-blooded Hattori," Hakuba retorted, scribbling on a pad of paper as he came into the dead end. "Say, do either of you know the way out?"

Conan opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. There /had/ been a number of side passages, but he hadn't made any particular effort to note where they had gone... He could tell from Heiji's expression that the Osaka detective was in much the same predicament.

Hakuba held up his pad triumphantly, displaying a rough hand-drawn map.  
"It's a good thing I was here, hmm?"

"All right then," Kid said, after making sure they weren't being pursued.  
"To the roof!"

The heavy wooden door opened easily, as though it had been recently oiled.  
Kid stepped out onto the roof, only to be met with an ominous chorus of automatic weaponry being readied. Carmen was forced out onto the roof by three more goons, and they were quickly surrounded.

"The police are resorting to military force?" Kid asked with a smirk. "That sounds improbable at best."

"Naah," Carmen said, looking their captors up and down. "I think they're mercs."

"Ahh," Kid nodded. "That would explain the trench coat."

The woman he was referring to stepped through the crowd of gunmen. "Kaitou Kid," she said, her white teeth glinting in the moonlight. "And Kid Junior.  
What a heist."

"I thought I said not to call me Junior," Carmen retorted.

She smirked nastily. "Very well, Junior," she said in a mocking imitation of Carmen's voice.

Carmen raised her eyebrows. "Is that the best you can do?"

Kid suppressed a grimace at the resounding slap behind his back.

Carmen rubbed her cheek. "I get it. You're trying to make yourself believe that you are stronger, more powerful, and smarter than a seven-year-old--"

Her sentence was broken off by yet another slap, this one sending her to the ground.

"Maybe you should stop provoking her," Kid suggested quietly.

"I'm beginning to think so too," Carmen said from the floor. "Who are you,  
anyway?"

"I'm known as Stingray," the woman said, clearly expecting them to recognize the name. Neither of them did.

"Okay..." Kaito said, nodding. "So, why are you holding us on the roof at gunpoint? Especially when there's a swarm of cops just downstairs."

As if to answer his question, a helicopter thundered into view and took up a station directly above them. It dropped a rope ladder.

Stingray pointed up. "Climb."

Kid looked up. "I'd rather not."

The goons raised their weapons ominously.

Kid quickly realized his error. "I mean, I'd rather not go alone."

"Of course," Stingray smiled nastily. "After you."

Kid and Carmen quickly climbed up to the hold of the transport helicopter.  
They didn't try anything as there were a couple more heavily-armed guards waiting for them there.

The rest of the gunmen poured up the ladder, and the helicopter moved off,  
apparently heading back towards Tokyo. Then the door was shut, and as the windows were all painted over, neither Kid nor Carmen could discern their flight path.

"As to your question," Stingray said, taking a seat on the floor, "I have kidnapped you--"

"NOT funny," Kid and Carmen interrupted simultaneously.

Stingray scowled. "Abducted, then. Is that better?" Without waiting for their approval, she continued. "I abducted you because I need you to get something for me."

"Something which is under lock and key, so heavily guarded that no ordinary burglar could get to it," Kid summarized. "That narrows it down quite a bit."

"It's a box."

"A box?" Kid said. "And, what, exactly, is in this box, that necessitates such heavy guard?"

"And another thing," Stingray added. "If you value your life and career,  
don't go in as Kaitou Kid."

"So what's in the box?" Kid pressed.

Stingray hesitated.

"I can't plan the heist without knowing what I'm going after," Kid said reasonably. "I might find it necessary to ditch the box, and I need to know what it contains."

"Papers," Stingray said finally. "Very old, original manuscripts."

"Of what?" he snapped. "You're not getting anywhere."

Stingray shrugged. "Very well. They're notes of Soong Khan, a half-Chinese,  
half-Japanese alchemist from the 12th century AD."

"I see," Kid said nonchalantly. "You still haven't told me why they're so valuable."

"That /is/ why they're so valuable," Stingray snapped. "It's a bit out of your league, but those documents could be worth a great deal to some people I know."

"So then, what's to stop me from taking the documents myself?" Kid asked innocently.

Stingray gestured at Carmen with her automatic pistol. "You don't come back with the objective, and she dies."


	19. Chapter 18

Kid and Carmen glanced at each other momentarily. A look of--amusement-  
passed between them briefly. "Oh, when you put it like that," Kid said suavely. "So where's this package located?"

"I'll show you," Stingray said, "when we--" she broke off and placed one finger on an earpiece previously hidden by her dark hair. "Ah. We're here."

She stood as the helicopter settled down with a bump. "Everybody out," she said, gesturing at the door with her pistol.

A couple of the guards opened the door and stepped out first, covering Kid and Carmen as they exited carefully, so as not to provoke the clearly edgy guards.

They were escorted from the roof of the skyscraper--Carmen noted with satisfaction a couple distinct landmarks, pinpointing their location to within a couple blocks of Tokyo--down to a hallway, where they entered a small room with a whiteboard and projector already set up.

Stingray flipped on the projector and tapped a button on the wireless mouse on the table. A map of Tokyo flickered into existence on the whiteboard.

There were only two other guards in the room, Carmen noted. One looked a bit uneasy, as though he expected the two thieves to vanish at a moment's notice. The other was strangely calm and unemotional. Carmen felt a vaguely disturbing sensation whenever she glanced over at him. She wasn't sure why.

She returned her attention to the whiteboard as Stingray zoomed in on a large warehouse complex. "This is where the box will most likely be stored,  
in this building," she said, circling a large warehouse in the center. "I suspect there will be snipers on the surrounding buildings. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole place was wired with explosives."

"Unlikely," Carmen said, studying the map intently. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say the explosives will be concentrated here," she gestured at the main building. "Probably around the perimeter, and I'd be surprised if the package itself wasn't boobytrapped with poison gas or something."

"Yes," concurred the Kid. "And the building will probably not be guarded by humans. Which," he added, "is not necessarily good."

"Especially if they have remote-control turrets in there, which if this is what I'm thinking it is, they will." Carmen frowned. "Probably here and here, maybe one there." She pointed out areas of the warehouse.

Stingray looked at them dubiously, but continued. "We know that they've got some heavy machinery in the complex, but we're not entirely sure what they are."

"Troop carriers," Kid said. Carmen nodded.

"And a jeep or two with machine guns." She tapped her cheek, thinking.  
"It's a veritable army."

Stingray looked slightly worried. "But you can do it, right?"

"Half an hour," said Kid immediately.

Carmen nodded. "Easily."

Stingray looked much relieved. "Good. How long do you need to prepare?"

Kid shrugged. "I'll be ready by tomorrow evening."

Stingray smiled, not maliciously this time. "Good."

Kid nodded and glanced over at Carmen. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow at this time," he said. He snapped his fingers and vanished in his characteristic puff of smoke.

Stingray's jaw gaped open. "Wh-you let him past!" she snapped accusingly at the guards.

"No, we didn't, ma'am," one replied nervously. "The door never opened!"

"Well, he's /gone," Stingray said, clearly unnerved by Kid's demonstration.

"No," Carmen snorted. "He's Kaitou Kid. That's what we /do/."

Stingray looked over at her. "Get her locked up," she ordered. "Quickly."

--

Carmen was escorted quickly, though not roughly, to a small white room just down the hall from the projector room. It had no windows and the original door had been replaced with a heavy-duty metal door and a fancy electronic lock. She was taken inside and released; then the door was locked.

After waiting for a moment, she did a quick perfunctory check for video cameras and other surveillance equipment. Finding none, she turned her attention to the lock.

There were a few interesting shadows behind the faceplate which she took care to disarm with a lockpick before proceeding. Then she removed the cover and examined the circuits behind it. They were evidently obfuscated and would require some inspection to untangle, so Carmen invoked her photographic memory and recorded the layout of all the various wires and circuit boards before snapping the cover back into place.

Then she settled back to do some tracing. 


	20. Chapter 19

Carmen stared blankly at the walls of his cell, recalling the circuit board layout of the electronic lock and tracing it mentally. That was one more nice thing about having a photographic memory, she thought to herself with a smirk.

It was a relatively simple design, but it had several hackish safeguards installed which were designed to prevent its code from being easily circumvented. To an ordinary person or even an experienced specialist this might have been discouraging, but Carmen was neither. She was a hacker. Turning defenses inward on each other was her specialty.

She quickly figured out how to override the lock. She did so, making it necessary to input the code twice and beep an alert when it was being entered. Thus warned, she felt free to switch back to her other, more comfortable, identity as Michael Okuda, which she did, with some measure of relief.

Then, having nothing else to do until the next day, he let his mind wander... back to when he'd first met /her/.

--

It was an advanced chemistry class in his second year of college.

It had been clear from the beginning who the best students were. Whether because the teacher was stricter than most, or the students laxer, a C was considered an excellent grade on a quiz. Most people got Ds.

Two people got As. Every single quiz.

Mitchell Reed was one.

The other was a girl on the other side of the room. She almost never talked except to occasionally correct the teacher's mistakes.

He looked her up one time; her name was Shiho Miyano. Amazingly, she was the same age as himself--fifteen. Her IQ score, also listed in the school's records, was 185.

Mitchell's was 184.

From that point on, he casually struck up a conversation with her a time or two. He discovered that she was majoring in biochemistry. Because of exemplary performance in grade school, she'd managed to get several years ahead of her peers academically. He suspected it had something to do with Japanese study methods.

Be that as it may, they both had a lot in common. Besides being smarter and younger than most of their classmates, they both spoke Japanese--she,  
because she'd been born there; Mitchell, because his mother was Japanese.  
She made sure he could speak both English and Japanese fluently.

He'd eventually showed Shiho a small taste of his hacking skills, after she complained about not being able to get ahold of some research data. She was, of course, impressed.

Which, Michael reflected dryly, wasn't exactly beneficial in the long run.

She'd asked to meet him one evening at an unfamiliar address, at 11:30 PM. It was a dark, suspicious-looking alley, which got him a bit worried. He was a bit more worried when she didn't show up for nearly 15 minutes.

At 11:44, three people entered the alley; Shiho wasn't among them. They--Vermouth, specifically, though admittedly he didn't know their names at the time--threatened to turn him in to the authorities for his illegal activities unless he turned his talents to work for their organization.

Reluctantly, he'd agreed, and was soon given the task of revamping their computer systems.

When he finished, their laptops had an operating system more secure than the NSA's. Excepting, of course, the invisible backdoors he'd left in place just in case. They wouldn't--couldn't--be detected unless you already knew they existed, and Mitchell was careful to never let on to their existence.

He refused to talk with Shiho for about a month. Even then it was only a terse 'Here' when he was turning over part of the software. She didn't bother apologizing. It wouldn't have done any good anyway. Mitchell would never have believed her.

He finally took matters into his own hands, when a member of the Organization was discovered to be an FBI agent. He tracked down the agent after his escape and contacted him. He and the agent arranged to fake his death and set up a new identity. After the setup, though, Mitchell slipped off and made his own arrangements. It wasn't that he didn't trust the FBI;  
he just wasn't particularly interested in having them know where he was all the time.

He'd moved back to Japan, secretly, and set up shop in Tokyo, quietly collecting all the information he could on the Black Organization's shady dealings in the area--and globally, too. That was when he'd discovered Shiho's research data on a civilian computer and found her, mysteriously shrunk by one of her potions. He'd eventually managed to get ahold of a sample.

He never intended to take it; he was planning on running some tests on it, nothing more. Except that it somehow found its way into one of his medicine bottles.

Michael was pretty sure that it'd happened when he accidentally spilled some of the pills on the counter. He hadn't checked to make sure there were none there to start with, so when he swept them back into the bottle, the apotoxin could conceivably have been mixed in.

Either way, he'd been accidentally shrunk by the potion as well. He figured out where she was attending school and arranged to begin classes there as well, with a pretty good--he thought--cover story.

Michael's thoughts wandered to the current topic of interest, the papers of alchemist Soong Li.

He recognized the name from a file he'd stumbled across when upgrading one of the Organization's servers. It was apparently a fragment, part of a larger file which had somehow not gotten swept under the rug during routine maintenance. It broke into the middle of a dissertation on how Soong Li's notes indicated that he may have actually discovered a substance known as carmot. It was about to go more in-depth as to what it meant by that when he reached the end of the fragment.

Michael wasn't sure what, exactly, carmot was, but apparently the Organization was interested in it. And in Soong Li.

So there was a high probability that these notes Kaito was after were in the possession of the Organization.

He'd told Kaito, of course, tapping in a Morse code variant on his transceiver during the briefing. They both could send and receive nearly as fast as they could talk, so the hardest part was tapping and carrying on a conversation with someone else at the same time. Somehow they managed.

But that guard... Michael wasn't sure about him. 


	21. Chapter 20

Kaito swung by home to pick up some accessories and let his mom know where he'd be, then dropped in on Jii to have him look up Soong Li. Oddly, there was very little information available on the alchemist.

Kid was airborne a few kilometers from the warehouse when his cell phone rang. "Hello?" he answered, fumbling with it.

There was a burst of static. "Hey, Kaito!"

"Michael? How'd you get a phone?" Kid squinted up ahead towards the warehouse complex. "Look, I'm about to be very busy--"

"I know," Michael answered. "Just do me a favor. Don't show up as Kaitou Kid if you can at all help it."

"Eh?"

"I have every reason to believe they know who you are."

--

The guard scanned the interior of the warehouse again. "Area zero. All clear," he said into his radio.

"Area zero clear, roger," Vodka repeated from Gin's car.

Gin took the microphone. "All units, remember to shoot to kill. Repeat, shoot to kill. This thief must not escape."

"Roger," came a chorus of voices.

"S-5 reporting a bogey at 6 o'clock," a voice crackled through. "Out of range and dropping rapidly. I can't get a clear reading on it."

"Bogey at six o'clock from S-5," Vodka scanned the map on Gin's laptop. "Approximate course?"

"Erratic. Now it's gone."

"Roger that," Vodka said. "Ground units, mobilize. Form a lineup between S-5 and area zero." He examined the screen, where the gunmen were displayed as blinking dots, spreading out to cover the possible paths to the central warehouse.

--

Michael paced his cell, bored. He'd have been inclined to go exploring except that he didn't know when someone would decide to make sure he was still in his room where he was supposed to be. And he didn't particularly want to let on to his captors that he could get out whenever he wanted.

Then he heard the lock beep, and in a flash, he was Kaitou Carmen again.

The door clicked open, admitting Stingray and the guard. "It looks like he's almost there," Stingray sneered. "You better hope he survives."

"We'll see," Carmen said calmly. The guard glanced at her; Carmen shivered. There was something wrong. Something... Her poker face clicked on almost automatically. So, that was it... "Stingray-san?"

Stingray looked at her oddly. "What?"

"Did you know that there's a spy among your goons?"

Stingray looked completely taken aback. She, evidently, was unfamiliar with the concept of a poker face. "What are you talking about?"

"I suspect," Carmen said calmly, "that the owner of those documents is waiting for our favorite thief with open arms."

Stingray glared at Carmen. "All right then, if you're so smart, who is this spy?"

The guard's eyes narrowed as they met Carmen's gaze. There was a pause, then the guard nodded soberly. "The girl's right, ma'am," he said.

Stingray glanced at him sharply, already suspecting the truth. The guard reached up and calmly peeled off his mask.

"And she's right here," finished the silvery-haired disguise expert.

Carmen scowled behind her poker face. Vermouth, of course.

Vermouth held her weapon on Stingray. "Unfortunately, I can't stay here any longer," she said. "So I'll be taking the girl and leaving."

Carmen nearly let her mask slip. /What!?/

Vermouth punched in the combination without looking. The door clicked open, and she seized one of Carmen's arms, never taking the gun off Stingray as the door swung shut. She quickly reset the code from the outside and hurried down the corridor to the roof. There was a helicopter waiting, and Vermouth lifted Carmen bodily into the copilot's seat, where she could easily keep an eye on her.

Carmen made no move to resist her. Yet. 


	22. Chapter 21

"So who are you? Behind the hat and monocle?" Vermouth glanced over at Carmen.

"Wouldn't you like to know." Carmen's face betrayed not the slightest hint of any emotion.

Vermouth smirked. "You realize I can get your true identity without any intervention on your part?"

"Yes," Carmen said calmly. "What /you/ may not realize is that I can do the same for you."

"No," Vermouth said, looking out the window ahead. "I don't think you can."

Carmen smiled secretively. "Perhaps there is more to the both of us than meets the eye."

Vermouth glanced over at her quizzically. Carmen just looked placidly out her window. Neither said anything further for a while.

--

"G-4, I've spotted an intruder. Just behind a building to the south."

"Roger that," Vodka said, glancing over the map. "All units, move to surround the area."

The blinking dots on the screen quickly took up new positions surrounding the area where Kid had been spotted. Gin glared at the screen, muttering something to himself. Then he shoved open the door and stood up, checking his pistol. "I'll be back," he said tersely to Vodka. Then he disappeared.

Kaito dropped noiselessly to the ground. The ground troops had gone right below him without seeing him. Now he was past that obstacle; he hurried in the direction of the warehouse.

"Stop." The voice was cold and authoritative. It left no room for disobedience.

He pulled up short. Blocking his path was a tall man, dressed entirely in black, with long, white hair. He had a gun. It was pointed directly at Kid.

--

"There," Vermouth said, circling the helicopter slowly. Carmen peered through the window to see Kaito being held at gunpoint by... Gin?

That was bad. She drew her pistol and shoved Vermouth's door open.

"Hey, stop!" Vermouth snapped. "What do you think--" It was too late;  
Carmen dove out of the helicopter. She managed to catch one of the runners and swung there for a moment while calculating her trajectory. Then she let go.

--

The long-haired man raised his pistol with finality. "Who are you?" he snapped maliciously.

Then the gun exploded in his hands. Or, at least, that was how it seemed to Kaito, from his point of view. A white blur streaked out of the sky and hit his opponent just at the base of the neck, knocking him to the ground.

"Let's go," Carmen snapped. "Hurry." Kaito needed no second prompting. They quickly vanished between the warehouses.

Vermouth stared after tham from her vantage point in the helicopter. "/That/ was incredible," she murmured.

--

"Gin is what?" Vodka snapped furiously.

"I said he got knocked out," Vermouth repeated over the radio. "The intruder is heading your way. I assume you have the explosives in place as ordered?"

"No," Vodka said sullenly. "Gin said to have them removed."

There was a deathly silence for a moment. Then, Vermouth nearly spat into the radio. "Get them in place. Now. No excuses. It will be better for all of us if those documents are destroyed rather than compromised."

"Yes, ma'am," Vodka acknowledged. He shoved the door open and climbed out.

--

"Let's get these explosives back on, pronto!" Vodka snapped to the few men who were guarding the inside of the warehouse. They set down their guns and scrambled to help him.

"Surprise!" came a cheerful voice from the rafters. When they looked up,  
everyone saw Kaitou Carmen hanging upside-down from the ceiling. No one saw Vodka slipping on a gas mask.

That was because the anesthetic gas conked them out almost immediately.

"Nice." Kaito peeled off his mask.

"Thanks," she said, dropping to the floor. "I recommend we take something other than that black foreign car, that belongs to a particularly nasty individual who'd likely sniff us out and kill us if we so much as touched it."

Kaito shrugged and picked up some of the C-4 the men had been carrying. "Let's secure our passage, shall we?"

--

Gin scowled as he sat up, rubbing his head. He wasn't sure how he'd been caught unawares like that, but one thing was for sure. It wouldn't happen again.

He climbed to his feet and started over towards his car. Despite the blow to his head, he was clear-headed and somehow unsurprised to discover Vodka sleeping peacefully in the back seat. He glanced up at the sound of a truck engine, and noted one of the army jeeps barreling towards him. He could just make out the driver as he dove into his car and fired up the engine. Tires squealing, he gave chase as the jeep wove betweenbuildings, dodging goons who were going sprawling in all directions to avoid the vehicles.

Carmen looked back. "He's coming."

Kaito nodded. "I know." He flipped a couple switches on the detonator panel they'd removed from Gin's car.

The walls on two of the warehouses buckled as a series of explosions reverberated through the complex. The warehouses slowly began toppling,  
right in the path of both the jeep and Gin's Porsche.

Kaito slammed on the accelerator and the jeep shot through just ahead of the falling debris. Gin's car took a large chunk of roof on the tail, but kept coming, unfazed.

He grinned. "A challenge... I always did like a challenge."

The jeep raced across a small bridge. As the Porsche swerved onto the bridge, Kaito flipped the switch.

Gin had a sudden feeling of foreboding. He slammed on the brakes.

It was too late. The front end of his car suddenly exploded in a brilliant orange fireball. The bulletproof, reinforced windshield buckled but didn't break from the force of the explosion. Then, as the smoke began to clear,  
the car tilted forward.

Gin swore and tried to shove his door open. The blast had jammed it firmly shut.

The car tilted further, then slid forward into the river below.

Fortunately or otherwise, the river wasn't particularly deep in that area;  
the water only came up to the base of the windshield. The reinforced frame of the car had prevented much serious damage; he figured it would probably still run. Cosmetically, though, it was a wreck.

Vodka sat up in the back of the car, rubbing his eyes. "What happened?" he growled sleepily.

Gin clenched the steering wheel, trying very hard to restrain himself from punching Vodka in the nose. He was managing admirably until Vodka asked, "Why are we in the river?"

At least, he reflected, he used his fist and not his gun. 


	23. Chapter 22

When they were safely in downtown Tokyo, Kaito and Michael ditched the jeep and caught a taxi to Jii's bar. Kaito called his mother and asked her to spend the night--or possibly the next few days--with friends, out of town.

"I'm pretty sure those guys know Snake," Michael told him. "And, judging from what you've told me, they--or Vermouth at least--know exactly who they're looking for. Which does not bode well for us."

This was a bit disconcerting for Kaito, but he shrugged it off. When they arrived at Jii's place, Michael commandeered a room in the back and began running the pages carefully, one at a time, through a scanner and uploading them to his computer.

It was morning by the time he'd finished. He repacked the documents, making use of his photographic memory to place them in the exact order he'd found them in. He then woke Kaito, who was taking advantage of a mat Jii had found somewhere, and they headed back home.

They scouted the area first, in disguise, before entering. Kaito took the package upstairs and left it in the secret room with the rest of the Kid paraphernelia.

Then they got a room at a hotel. Working all night is tiring enough, but working all night in addition to being shot at and kidnapped, right after another heist, is something totally different. They slept until late after lunch.

--

As Michael expected, when they returned, the package was gone. Nothing else was disturbed, though there was a reply to the note Michael had left with the package.

The note had read: "Sorry about the trouble. Please forgive b/c of extenuating circumstances. No hard feelings?" followed by his characteristic signature.

The reply read: "I dare you to do that again." It was signed, "Vermouth.  
In tiny print at the bottom, it added, "No hard feelings. Lucky you."

"Well, at least she led the raid," Michael said optimistically. "If it'd been Gin he'd have leveled the entire neighborhood. I'm sure she's getting a kick out of his predicament so she's a bit less... pugnacious."

"Who are they?" Kaito asked, glaring at him, "And how do you know about them?"

Michael started to give his "need to know" pitch, then relented. "I suppose you have just as much of a right to know now. These guys are part of a more or less international crime syndicate. It's very secret, very powerful, and very deadly. I was a member once. Fortunately for me, I escaped before becoming too deeply entrenched. It seems you've run afoul of them before,  
when you started looking for that Pandora gem. Conan-kun has, also... which is why he is in the position he is. He was looking for a case, I think. But anyway, as I said, I was one and so I know more about them than--most people." He glanced around. "Let's go for a walk. Somehow I don't feel like being in the house."

They stopped by a restaurant and got a late lunch. That's where Conan and company found them.

"Michael-kun!" Ayumi called.

Michael blinked and looked around. "Oh, hi, guys! What's up?"

"Are you all right?" Mitsuhiko wanted to know.

Michael frowned. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Didn't Kaitou Carmen impersonate you yesterday?" Genta reminded him.

"Oh, that," Michael chuckled. He rummaged in his pockets, pulling out a piece of paper. "I still got her autograph."

"But where did you go afterwards?" Ayumi asked. "We couldn't find you anywhere."

Michael shrugged, looking embarassed. "Well, I only had the one change of clothes, so..."

"I took him home to get dressed," Kaito whispered confidentially. He winked at Michael.

Ayumi giggled. Haibara smirked, and the other three laughed too.

"What would /you/ have done?" Michael retorted, turning back to his food.  
That just made them laugh harder.

--

"So now what?" Kaito asked.

Michael shrugged. "School, tomorrow morning. Did you forget?"

Kaito yelped and looked at his watch. "How did the time pass so fast?"

"And," Michael reminded him, "we still have two gems to go. In eight hours."

Kaito grinned. "Somehow I think I'm going to be sleeping in class tomorrow."

"We could split up," Michael suggested. "I'll take one and you take the other. I doubt they'd be too difficult."

Kaito frowned. "Well, I suppose," he said, shrugging. "But the police are probably going to be in a tizzy. Two robberies at the same time, Nakamori will have a terrible time deciding which he should be at."

"Oh, I'm betting on your robbery," Michael said, grinning. "You're the one he's most familiar with."

"I say it'll be yours," Kaito retorted. "He still thinks you're an easier target than me."

"Fine," Michael said. "The loser buys dinner for both."

"Loser pays for half," Kaito proposed. "Last one back pays for the other half. If they're the same person," he shrugged, "they pay for the whole meal."

"You're on." Michael grinned. 


	24. Chapter 23

"This is Nakamori," Inspector Nakamori answered his phone. He listened for a moment, then everyone in the office dove under their desks as he leaped to his feet, unleashing a torrent of verbal abuse which no one but Kaitou Kid could have caused.

"He's going after the Ichiro jewel in one hour," Nakamori growled. "One hour! He couldn't even give us two hours' notice, it had to be one hour!"

Everyone slowly crawled out from under their desks.

Then the computer screens blinked. Every screen in the department simultaneously went black, then yet another notice faded in. Nakamori's face started to turn purple as he read it.

Several of the staff began moving surreptitiously towards the door.

Nakamori let out an even louder and longer stream of unprintable language.  
"Now that BRAT is going after the last jewel! AT THE SAME TIME!" A flower pot flew across the room and smashed into the wall.

Then the computer screens flashed again and reverted back to their normal states. Nakamori, however, did not. He paced, ranting for nearly five minutes before it suddenly dawned on him that an hour meant an hour.

"Get the vans loaded!" he bellowed. "We're moving out!"

"Hai!" Everyone rushed out of the room, relieved to be out of the range of the raving inspector.

"Inspector! Which heist?" the driver asked.

"I don't care!" Nakamori roared. "Just GO!"

The driver shrugged and slammed on the accelerator. The van's tires screeched as it peeled out of the parking lot.

--

Kaito muttered something to himself as he noted Nakamori standing out prominently in the crowd of policemen. "I suppose I'll just have to get home first," he said softly. "Ah well." He glanced at his watch. "Time for the show to begin."

"Ladies... Aaand... GENTLEMEN!" Kid crowed over the buiilding's PA system.

Nakamori growled some miscellaneous threats under his breath as he prepared for yet another eventful evening.

--

Michael grinned triumphantly when he saw that Nakamori wasn't among the policemen lined up against him. "There's half," he said to himself. "Now for the other half."

Then he saw their contingency plan. He blinked. Then he blinked again.

Perched on the pedestal with the jewel was none other than Conan. He held the jewel carefully, but tightly.

"Fight fire with fire," Michael mused. "Fascinating."

Conan glanced around the crowd, not letting his nervousness surface. If it was true that Kaitou Carmen was the only one he was up against, he'd be fine; she couldn't move him bodily. Kaitou Kid could. But he'd stated that he'd be at a different heist, so...

He blinked and nearly toppled over backwards when she appeared in front of him, grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Pretty please, Edogawa-kun?" She winked at him. "I'll give you an autograph!"

Conan held tight to the jewel. "Not a chance," he retorted. Then he realized he was in a dilemma. He couldn't use his tranquilizer watch when he was holding the jewel...

"Remember this?" Carmen popped his other watch--the one she'd stolen--up in front of his face.

Conan sweatdropped. "You wouldn't..."

Carmen grinned. "Of course I wouldn't. That would be cheating." She tossed it to him.

Almost involuntarily, he reached up a hand to catch it. That was his mistake.

There was a puff of smoke and Carmen was gone. So was the jewel. In its place was a small card with the words "Thank you!" and a slightly different version of Kid's signature.

Conan steamed. He didn't notice the police until they were almost on top of him; it was only then that he realized Carmen had somehow slipped her Kid outfit onto him. He dove out of the way and hastily removed the suit. "I'm not Carmen!" he protested.

The nearest policeman picked him up by his cheek. "Nope, he's not," he verified. He set Conan down unceremoniously and the hunt for Carmen resumed with the discovery that the suit had vanished during the impromptu inspection.

Carmen made it to the roof without opposition. She was about to take off on her hang-glider when Conan slammed the door open.

"Hello again," Carmen said calmly, turning back to him. "Another round?"

Conan held up the card. "That was low."

Carmen shrugged. "It worked, didn't it?"

Conan dropped it on the floor.

"So what would you prefer, Edogawa-kun?" Carmen perched indian-style on the edge of the roof. "Maybe little hearts?"

"I would prefer the jewel," Conan said icily.

"You were supposed to reply with something witty," Carmen said, looking a little hurt. "Just for that, I'll keep the jewel for now. You know it'll be back where it came from in no time."

"So then why do you do it?" Conan asked, losing a little of his animosity.

Carmen held up the sparkling jewel, looking at it in the moonlight. "Partly for the adventure. Partly because it gives me a bit of notoriety. And," she added, grinning mischeviously, "of course, because it pits me against the most intelligent--or otherwise--people in Japan." She waved and did a backflip off the edge of the roof.

Conan rushed to the edge and looked over, readying his tranquilizer watch. Carmen was nowhere in sight.

He sighed and plunked his elbows on the edge of the roof. This was getting frustrating. He was beginning to understand why Nakamori was so violent with his abuse. 


	25. Chapter 24

"There you are!" Kaito said. "You got back last, so..."

"And you got Nakamori," added Michael.

"I did?" Kaito acted forgetful. "I don't remember..."

"Well, I certainly didn't," Michael said. "He'd never have approved of Conan's stunt."

"You have a point there," Kaito agreed. "So then he must have been the one tracing my family history back through Adam."

"That sounds like him," Michael smirked. "So we split the cost."

"Tomorrow at 6," Kaito said, grinning. "Meet me here and we'll go somewhere good."

"All right," Michael agreed. He yawned and glanced at his watch. "It's almost 11. We better hit the sack now before it's too late." He looked over at where Kaito had been standing.

Kaito was lying on the couch, eyes closed, apparently sleeping. Michael stared at him for a moment, then shook his head. "How does he do that?"

--

The next day, Teitan Elementary was abuzz, for two reasons. One, of course,  
was that school was back in session; the second reason was the Kaitou heists over the past two weeks.

Conan wasn't particularly in a mood to talk to anyone, which, Michael supposed, was understandable, as he'd been unable to prevent a single one of the ten robberies, let alone catch the Kid.

On the other hand, Michael's 'Kaitou Carmen' autograph drew quite a bit of attention, as did the fact that he'd been knocked out and impersonated by the same. However, this time, Michael didn't try to hide but instead showed off some of his magic tricks. He was getting the hang of being the center of attention.

After school let out, Michael and the rest of the Detective Boys went over to Agasa's house. The Professor had come up with a new game and a new, but still lame, pun-based quiz, all since the last time Michael had seen him.

Michael decided that the game was a bit too easy. The others--excepting Conan of course, who refused to try--agreed with his conclusion.

"It should be harder, Professor," Mitsuhiko said. "Right now it's so easy that it's boring."

Agasa smiled. "We can fix that," he said, taking the controller. He popped up a diagnostics console and changed a few settings. "Try it now."

It was a bit more challenging this time, but it was still too easy. Michael took matters into his own hands.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Mitsuhiko asked in a mixture of concern and amazement as Michael clicked through the menus at lightning speed.

"Nope," said Michael cheerfully. "I'm guessing."

He was done quickly. Now the cars exhibited substantially more lifelike maneuvers, making it realistic and difficult at the same time. Haibara shot daggers at his back with her eyes; he could tell she was upset at his exhibition.

Which, he supposed, was understandable, since they weren't supposed to know the truth about the apotoxin. But they seemed to accept his explanation of "lucky guessing".

"Oh!" Agasa exclaimed, slapping his forehead. "I almost forgot. Do you kids want to go camping this weekend?"

"Yes!" they chorused in unison--they being everyone except Haibara and Conan.

"Great!" the Professor said, smiling. "I found a good campground online.  
It's within walking distance of an ancient ruin called /Himitsu Nejiro/."

"Himitsu Nejiro?" Michael mused.

"Yes," Agasa nodded. "It was a hidden fortress belonging to some warlord several hundred years ago."

Michael pondered that for a moment. The name was nagging at him... there was something about it, something he couldn't quite place. And that was odd because he had a photographic memory. He didn't forget things easily.

"Michael-kun, look out!" Ayumi cried. Michael jolted out of his daydream to realize that he was still in the middle of a game. He quickly recovered,  
but he still lost the round.

"Hey, Michael, are you feeling OK?" Genta asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Michael said absently. He handed the controller to someone else and moved over.

--

"MICHAEL!" Haibara waved her hand in front of his face.

Michael started and looked around. Everyone else had left already. "Oh, sorry. I think I phased out there."

"Yeah," Haibara said, looking amused. "I've been trying to ask whether you intended to stay for supper."

Michael glanced at his watch, horrified. "It's that late? I'm supposed to meet Kaito at the house at 6! I've got to get going!" He waved as he ran towards the door and grabbed his things. "See you tomorrow, Haibara-san!"

--

Kaito was standing on the porch, punching a number into his cell phone when Michael skated up. He snapped it closed when he looked up and saw Michael.

"It's nearly quarter after," Kaito said, frowning. "I was beginning to think you'd been kidnapped."

"Not FUNNY," Michael said, tossing his schoolbag in the front door. "Hey, Kaito. Want to go camping this weekend?"

Kaito blinked. "Why the sudden change of subject?"

Michael grinned. "I'll tell you at the restaurant." 


	26. Chapter 25

"So this Himitsu Nejiro is where Soong Li did his research," Kaito shrugged. "Why should that interest me? I'm not an alchemist."

Michael glanced down at his cell phone before replying. "I suspect--" he broke off as a waitress approached their table.

"Can I get you something to drink?" she asked politely.

Kaito looked at his menu. "I'll take a cola," he said.

"Water," Michael said flatly.

"All right, coming up," she said, moving away.

Michael looked at his phone again. Reaching under the table, he peeled off a wireless transmitter and snapped it in half. "Don't drink anything she gives you," he advised, dropping it on the floor.

Kaito smiled mirthlessly. "Obviously."

The waitress returned quickly with their drinks. Michael silently drew a small packet out of his pocket and sprinkled a bit of a colorless powder into his water. It turned a brownish color, and he pushed it away.

"Suddenly I'm not thirsty anymore."

The waitress chuckled. "Very funny," she said. "Would you like another?"

"Maybe from a legitimate employee," Michael suggested. "Or is that who you are impersonating?"

She smirked. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Me neither," Michael said, grinning mischeviously. "But I am getting hungry. Promise not to slip anything into it this time?"

"Of course not," she said with a wink. "Besides, I have an appointment shortly, so I can't stay anyway."

"Too bad," Michael said. "Oh, and thanks for not sending Porsche-san to get the package. That would've been messy."

"Yeah," she snickered. "Though I've got to admit, that's the first time I've ever seen a hint of fire from him. Usually it's just ice."

"Well, maybe when he cools off, he'll feel better," suggested Kaito. "In the mean time, I think I'm ready to order. If the food is provided unadulterated."

The waitress stood up. "All right. I'll try to find you guys a waiter before I go."

"And no mysterious powder," Kaito reminded her.

"He's the one with the powder," she retorted, jerking her thumb at Michael before vanishing into the back of the restaurant.

Michael checked his cell phone's screen again. His handmade tracker wasn't showing any listening devices this time. "That was Vermouth. Her makeup powers are comparable with your own."

"She seemed familiar," Kaito mused. "I wonder why..."

Another waitress, real this time, came up quickly and took their orders.  
She also brought them new drinks.

"I doubt she really poisoned them, but it's best to make sure with her"  
Michael commented quietly.

"Your glass turned brown, didn't it?" Kaito asked.

"It would have done that anyway," Michael shrugged. "The powder reacted with the water, not any poison. I was bluffing."

Kaito chuckled. "And very nicely, too."

Michael smiled. "Thank you. I thought so."

Kaito leaned forward. "So what were you saying when our friend so kindly dropped in to see us?"

Michael was about to reply, but paused and glanced out the window. "Umm"  
He peered out into the street; it was getting darker. "Unless I am mistaken, and I don't think I am, she isn't giving up."

Kaito smirked, examining the pane of glass. "Don't tell me. She's using a laser-reflection monitor."

Michael rummaged in his pockets. "Interference, interference... aha!" He pulled out a small buzzer, the type you hold in your hand when shaking hands. He fished out a piece of tape and taped it firmly to the window,  
stuck in the on position.

"That'll give us about five minutes of continuous vibration, I think." He paused. "About Soong Li... don't you suppose there's a reason /they/ have a file on him?"

Kaito tapped his fingers together, thinking. "That's true. But it's still not enough to justify--"

"Actually," Michael interrupted him, "I think he may be the one who found Pandora in the first place."

"Oh, really?" Kaito raised his eyebrows. "That puts a new spin on things."

"Indeed," Michael nodded. "He has this propensity for secrecy. Most of the important parts of his notes seem to be either encrypted or hidden. That, I suspect, is why the Organization hasn't found Pandora yet. However..." He glanced at the buzzer again. "I have a bit of a unique perspective on this.  
I managed to figure something out this afternoon when the Professor mentioned a camping trip to the Hidden Fortress. There wasn't much except a reference to his workshop in /the/ hidden stronghold."

"I see..." Kaito mused. "So you think we might find something there?"

Michael shrugged. "We'll find something. The question is if it's something we are looking for."

Kaito nodded. "This weekend, right?"

Michael nodded. "Yes... but what are you going to tell your classmates if they ask about the weekend? That you're going camping with your seven-year-  
old distant cousin, a bunch of his friends, and an... aged inventor?"

Kaito smirked. "Now that you mention it, that /does/ sound a bit... unusual for someone my age."

Michael tapped his chin. "We could invite everyone."

Kaito stared at him. "You can't be serious."

"The more, the merrier," Michael grinned. "I hear there's a guided tour of part of the underground section."

A grin spread across Kaito's face. "Now that you mention it..."

"Hakuba can draw up one of his maps," Michael smirked.

They high-fived each other. "Yeah!"

Michael looked over at the buzzer. As he watched, it slowly vibrated to a stop. "That's that," he said, peeling it off and pocketing it.

They spoke about perfectly normal things as they ate dinner. No mention was made of either Kaitou Kid or Himitsu Nejiro for the rest of the evening. 


	27. Chapter 26

"Amazing!" Ran exclaimed, looking out the window of Agasa's Beetle to the ruins, far below.

"Yeah," agreed Mitsuhiko. "And to think, that fortress went up in less than two months with only one hundred men working on it!"

"Really?" Genta exclaimed. "That's a lot!"

"Not really," Mitsuhiko corrected him.

"It would be about equivalent to a two-man crew building a house in a week," Haibara explained. "It is an incredible amount of effort."

Conan was staring out the other window, watching the cliff fly by inches from his nose. He was clearly unimpressed.

"Oh, this might interest you," she said, glancing up from the guidebook.  
"The underground passages are said to be haunted by ghosts of some of the workers who died during the construction."

Conan rolled his eyes. "Please."

Haibara shrugged, smirking. "Apparently, when the fortress was privately owned, several of the owners died under mysterious circumstances. Their deaths were attributed to the ghosts."

"Really?" Conan looked interested now.

"Yes," she showed him.

"Hmm..." Conan was lost in thought again. This time, though, he looked almost eager to get there.

Haibara closed the guidebook. Mentioning the words "death" and "suspicious"  
in the same sentence practically guaranteed Kudo's interest. He was terribly predictable.

--

Hakuba was beginning to wonder why he'd agreed to go camping with Kaito.

Especially considering that he knew there were going to be six people,  
packed into one car.

/Well, he thought, /at least I'm in the driver's seat... it's not quite as crowded as the back seat./

Michael was sitting between Hakuba, in the driver's seat, and Kaito, in the front passenger's seat. The three girls were in the back, chattering.

"Hey, look at this!" Keiko said, holding up the guidebook. "It says the ruins are haunted."

"Haunted?" Aoko looked slightly worried.

"Just take a mop, you'll be fine," Kaito muttered, more to himself than to her.

"I doubt a mop would be very effective against a ghost," Akako pointed out.

"I suppose you have a better idea?" he retorted.

Michael rolled his eyes.

"Of course," she said loftily. "But you'll have to wait and see."

"Ah," Kaito nodded. "Of course. I should have known."

There was silence for a moment as the girls pored over the guidebook. Then the chatter resumed once more.

"So, Kaito," Hakuba said again. "Why are you so interested in ancient archaeology?"

"Come on," Kaito snorted. "Secret passages, old booby-traps, who wouldn't find those interesting?"

"I suppose they'd be old hat for you," Hakuba agreed.

"Why?" Kaito asked innocently. "I'm not Kid, if that's what you mean."

Michael acted as though he were ignoring both of them.

"There's the campgound," Kaito announced finally.

"And the Professor's Beetle!" added Michael. "It's not in the parking spot,  
though. I wonder why?"

Hakuba pulled into the camping spot next to Agasa's. The Professor approached them as they got out.

"Hello," he said, spotting Michael. "Ah, my car ran out of gas just before we pulled in... would you mind lending a hand?" He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"I suppose we can do that," Hakuba nodded. He and Kaito went over to help push the car as Agasa steered. Together, they managed to get the car safely onto the designated parking area.

"Thank you very much," Agasa said, rubbing his hands together. He looked over at Hakuba's car, where the girls were trying to unstrap the things on the roof.

"Ah-no, wait!" Kaito and Hakuba yelped in unison, rushing back to the car.  
They were just too late; the luggage spilled down off the top, narrowly avoiding the three would-be helpers.

"So-sorry," Aoko said nervously. "I didn't know it would do that."

"It wouldn't have," Kaito said, "if SOMEBODY had packed it the way I told him to."

"And I was supposed to believe you had my best interests in mind?" Hakuba retorted.

"Children, please!" Akako reproved severely. "Can it at least wait until the tents are set up?"

Hakuba glared at Kaito, then picked up one of the tents and moved off to set it up. Kaito grabbed the other.

Hakuba set up his tent calmly and methodically. Kaito did precisely the opposite. One side of the tent would go up, hang there for a minute, and then come crashing down when he tried to set the other pole up.

"Should we help him?" Aoko wondered, after Kaito's tent collapsed for the fifth or sixth time.

"No, I'm fine!" Kaito called.

Hakuba finished pounding in his last stake and stood back to admire his handiwork. Kaito gave up on his tent for the moment and came over to critique it.

"Not bad," Kaito said, after looking it over. He snapped his fingers.

As if by magic--or quite possibly, /by/ magic--his tent rose up, seemingly of its own volition, and assembled itself. Hakuba gaped as the stakes all dropped neatly into the tent holes, needing only to be pounded in to finish setting up the tent.

"And that," Kaito said, taking the hammer, "is, I think, better."

Aoko and Keiko clapped appreciatively. Akako folded her arms, smirking, and Hakuba... well, you could almost see the black clouds gathering above his head.

"Eh?" someone said from the direction of Agasa's campsite. "Sh-Shinichi?"

Kaito looked over. "Who?"

"No, that's Kuroba Kaito-san," Conan corrected Ran quickly. "Michael's cousin."

"It's a bit more complicated than that," Michael muttered. "But close enough, I guess."

"Oh," said Ran, looking embarassed. "I'm sorry, you look a lot like someone I know."

"Oh," Kaito laughed. "There's nothing to be sorry for."

Ran smiled, relieved. "Oh, Saguru-san!"

"Mouri Ran, I believe?" Hakuba bowed politely. "Pleased to meet you again"  
He looked at Conan. "And Conan-kun..." he nodded at him.

"I think Kaito invited his entire class," Michael muttered to Conan.

Conan looked at his watch. "Yes, well..."

Michael narrowed his eyes. "Don't tell me. You invited someone else?"

Conan squinted down the road. "I think that's them." 


	28. Chapter 27

A motorbike roared up to the campsites. It skidded to a stop as the driver expertly threw his weight, shifting the cycle nearly 90 degrees. "Yo, K-  
Conan-kun!" he called cheerfully, taking off his helmet.

"Is that--" Ran began.

"Hattori Heiji," finished Hakuba, taking in Heiji's mode of transportation critically.

Heiji looked at him in disbelief. "What's he doing here?" he asked Conan,  
not bothering to lower his voice.

Kaito and Michael exchanged amused glances.

Kazuha slipped off the back seat. "Hello, Ran-chan!" she called cheerfully.  
"Who are your friends?" She looked over at Kaito's group.

"Actually," Ran confessed, "I only know Saguru Hakuba. One of Conan-kun's friends invited some of his classmates to come along too."

Kaito stepped in and helpfully supplied introductions. "Koizumi Akako,  
Nakamori Aoko, and Keiko," he said, pointing to each in turn. "I'm Kuroba Kaito, and he, of course, is Saguru Hakuba." He jerked his thumb at Hakuba.

"Nakamori?" Ran wondered. "Are you by any chance related to Inspector Nakamori?"

"Yes," Aoko said, smiling. "He's my father."

"Really!" Ran exclaimed. She and Kazuha were soon deep in conversation with the other girls.

"Other than the girls," Michael mused, appearing right next to Kaito, "it's beginning to looking familiar."

Kaito grinned. "As long as it ends differently this time."

Michael nodded soberly. "I certainly hope so."

--

"This path would have been about the only way to reach the fortress," the tour guide explained. "So it was relatively easy to defend, even with only a handful of men."

Michael looked about in awe. The passage, cut by hand straight through a tall cliff, was barely wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side. It looked to be about seven feet tall. Not the best place to pick a fight, he decided, unless you were using a dagger or some similar weapon. A sword or bow would quickly become a liability in such close quarters.

They moved on, towards the interior of the cliff. Around a sharp ninety-  
degree bend, they came upon a narrow flight of stairs cut into the wall and supplemented with a decidedly modern steel railing. "Watch your step," the guide warned. "These stairs will often get slippery if water seeps down in here." He flashed his light over the edge.

Everyone gasped in amazement. There was a huge, though of course only dimly lit, natural cavern; the floor was about two stories below. Scattered along the walls of the cavern were a couple dozen small rooms and passages;  
some were natural passages, while others looked to be man-made. All in all,  
it was a veritable maze.

"As you can see," the guide said, gesturing towards the honeycombed wall,  
"it's very easy to get lost in here. So, please, don't get off the trail.  
If you lose sight of the railing, you might be lost down here for a long time."

"I heard that the caverns are haunted," spoke up Keiko. "Have you seen any ghosts?"

"No," said the guide, chuckling. "But I have heard some weird noises, and other people say they've seen them. It seems that many early explorers would come in here, usually underequipped, and get lost. Sometimes they couldn't find their way out; others, if they did find their way out, would report strange sightings of moving lights in other parts of the cave,  
people screaming, or something similar."

"The light could have been caused by a pocket of gas being ignited, say, if a rock in the ceiling were to fall to the floor and cause a spark," Conan suggested.

"And people screaming could have been wind rushing through a small gap"  
Mitsuhiko added.

"That's what most people think," the guide agreed. He started to say something, but a strange look flickered across his face as he looked down a side passage. He glanced quickly at his watch and then back up. "Stay here.  
I thought I just saw someone moving around. They may be lost." He pulled a roll of twine out of his pack and tied one end to the railing before heading off into the darkness.

He was back in a couple of minutes. "It was a professional caver," he said.  
"He was hired to help map out the caverns." With a shrug, he continued on the tour.

"EEE-EEEEYAAAH!!" Ran, Kazuha, and Aoko screamed in unison, rounding a corner just ahead of everyone else. Conan and Heiji dove for the front,  
expecting the worst.

Just off the path, a small stream ran down deeper into the cavern. In the bottom of the stream was a man. He wasn't moving.

Heiji vaulted the railing quickly; Conan ducked through it. "He's dead"  
Conan said after feeling for a pulse.

"It's the ghosts!" Kazuha shivered.

"Ahou!" Heiji scolded. "There was no ghost. This man was murdered." 


	29. Chapter 28

"M-murdered?" the guide gasped, turning pale. "How do you know he didn't just fall?"

"The rock," Heiji said, pointing. "He was hit from behind with this rock;  
he then pitched forward over the railing. The rock was dropped close to his head, but there's no way he could have accidentally fallen on it and killed himself." Heiji glanced around. "You mentioned that there was a caver here," he said. "Is there anyone else in this section of the fortress?"

At that moment, a short, sturdily-built man came up the path, rubbing his hands on a rag. "What's going on?" he asked gruffly. He saw the corpse in the streambed and stared in astonishment.

"There's been a murder," Hakuba informed him.

"Quite recently too," Conan added. "Not more than fifteen minutes, I'd say."

"Yeah," Heiji said, nodding. "So where have you been in the past fifteen minutes?"

The man jerked his thumb down the trail. "I've been working on some lights down the way. Some critters chewed through a wire and I had to replace it."

"And I don't suppose you have an alibi," Heiji said, frowning.

The electrician thought for a minute. "Nope," he said finally. "I don't."

"All right," Heiji said thoughtfully. "Everybody head back to the entrance.  
Kazuha or Ran, when you've got signal, call the police. Make sure no one leaves the cave until they arrive. Got it?"

They nodded soberly. The guide led them back up the path; the electrician followed.

Heiji and Conan watched them go before turning their attention back to the deceased. "Hmm... Hiro Nakamano," Heiji said, pulling out the man's wallet.  
"Not exactly strapped for cash, either." He flipped through several 10,000 yen bills.

Conan and Heiji both looked up, startled, when a staccato beeping noise erupted just beside them. Michael was perched on a rock with the victim's cell phone, tapping away at lightning speed.

"I already checked that," Conan told him. "All the messages were erased."

"Really?" Michael said curiously. "Because they're all here."

Conan stared at him. "What?"

Michael turned the cell phone so Conan could see it. Sure enough, all the text messages had been recovered.

Conan took the phone and flipped through the messages. Most of them were innocuous, little tidbits from the deceased's family. Some of them, though,  
were downright threatening.

"This is amazing, Michael-kun," Conan said, still focused on the messages.

"Where'd he go?" Heiji asked, sounding puzzled.

"Eh?" Conan looked around. Michael had disappeared. "I hope he's not trying to explore," he said. "He'd probably get lost."

--

"I'll be right back," Kaito told the group before heading back into the cave.

"Don't go off the trail," the guide reminded him.

"I know!" he called back before vanishing around the bend.

"There you are," he said, running into Michael further down the trail.

"Yes," Michael said. "Follow me." He dove through the railing.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Kaito worried.

"Nope," Michael said cheerfully.

"Oh, then in that case, count me in!" Katio swung over the railing.

Michael swiveled his laptop screen to tablet mode and displayed one of the pages from the manuscript. With a few clicks, he zoomed in on a diagram.

"Watch." The computer did a quick computation and then re-displayed the diagram differently.

Kaito looked around. "Isn't that--"

"A map of the place? I think so." Michael scanned the tunnels, lining them up with the map on the screen. "He drew it intending for it to be viewed with a specially shaped mirror, I think, but my laptop was able to make corrections for that fact. Ah, that way," he said, pointing down a dark passage.

They pulled out small flashlights and turned them on, then carefully made their way down the corridor.

It soon dead-ended.

"Are you sure about this?" Kaito asked, looking around.

"Umm..." Michael squinted at the screen. "Open sesame?"

There was a rumbling sound and the wall ahead of them split down the middle,  
opening slowly to create a gaping doorway.

Kaito blinked. "What was that?"

Michael grinned and pointed out a cleverly camoflauged button on the wall.

"Oh." Kaito nodded. "So it's not voice-activated after all. Too bad."

The door closed behind them after they passed through, leaving no trace of its existence. "Impressive," Michael said out loud. He referred back to his map.

"Now we're inside his storeroom," Michael said slowly. "That way." He pointed to the left.

What they saw inside took their breath away. "Amazing," Kaito said in awe. "I have never seen anything so... bejeweled."

The entire room sparkled in various colors as the light from their flashlights cascaded through multifaceted gemstones of various colors. It gave a wierd,  
almost mystical effect.

"Surely they're not all real gemstones!" Michael exclaimed, examining one.

"Semiprecious gems, at least," Kaito said. "They're not glass. Oh, here, this one's amethyst."

When they managed to break free of the strangely hypnotic effect, they discovered that the room had several old, partially rotted wooden cabinets and chests. They were rummaging through them when Michael discovered something strange.

"Kaito," he said. "Look at this."

Inside one rotten drawer, there was a circle of apparently pristine wood. In the center of the circle was a small box, also in pristine condition.

Kaito slowly reached out his hand towards the box. When nothing harmful happened, he picked it up carefully.

"It could be boobytrapped," Michael warned him.

Kaito nodded and examined the box with the expertise of a magician who dealt with hidden devices all the time.

"There's no traps," he said at last, "not on the outside, anyway. But there seems to be a riddle on the bottom of the box."

Michael took it and read it carefully. "'Those who try to twist the flow of time to their own ends will assuredly fail'. It sounds more like a warning than a riddle."

Kaito shrugged. "So there wasn't anything about this in the notes?"

"No," Michael said slowly. "And the wood... see how it's not rotted right around where the box was sitting?"

As he spoke, the formerly pristine area changed with astonishing rapidity, the process of decay taking over and reducing it to so much dust. Kaito and Michael only stared as the drawer collapsed in on itself, leaving little intact. 


	30. Chapter 29

"That... can't be good," Kaito muttered, shaking his head. He looked dubiously at the small crystal in his hands. "Do you suppose...?" his voice trailed off.

"Let me see," Michael held out his hands.

Kaito turned the crystal over in his hands. "I don't think so."

Michael looked at him, confused. "Excuse me?"

Kaito looked down at him. Michael felt something was terrifyingly wrong... he forced himself to meet Kaito's gaze.

It was the stare of... he wasn't sure what. Not a normal person, that was for sure.

Kaito let out a weird laugh as he held up the small crystal. "The secret of immortality," he said, almost whispering. "I can live FOREVER!" A maniacal laugh echoed through the cave.

"Kaito," Michael said, trying to sound calm, "if you're trying to be funny, it's not working."

"I don't care," Kaito said, not taking his eyes off the crystal. "I have this now..."

Something was definitely wrong. Michael was at a loss as to what to do. The most obvious thing, of course, would be to take the crystal; but there was no guarantee he wouldn't just turn on Michael, and he was stronger and faster. There was also no way Michael could know that he, too, wouldn't be subjected to the box's strange, almost magical effects.

Magical...?

A loud voice interrupted his thoughts. It thundered out some words in a language Michael had never heard before.

Kaito gasped, clutching his chest, and dropped the sparkling crystal to the floor. He doubled over in pain.

"Koizumi-san!" Michael exclaimed as she swept into the room. "How--"

She gave him a withering glare. "Amateur magicians should never meddle with powers they do not understand," she warned severely. "This is a prime example." She stooped and carefully picked up the crystal.

"What did you do?" Michael asked finally.

Akako glanced over at Kaito, who was still lying on the floor. "I made him feel as though a red-hot iron were being driven through his stomach and then twisted around."

Michael shuddered. "I didn't want to know that."

"You asked," she said brusquely. She tucked the crystal into a small box, placing both into a pocket somewhere in the many folds of her dress. "This is something neither of you are ready for."

"It's something the world isn't ready for," Michael said quietly. "It's an incredible resource that could cause massive pain and suffering to scores of innocent people. And it already has. It must be destroyed before more suffer."

"Such wisdom from such a young man," Akako said, looking at him oddly. "You are correct. But I doubt it will be as easy as taking a hammer to it. Carmot is rumored to be a substance harder than diamond; the last known crystal, besides this one, was thrown into a volcano several hundred years ago. So I wouldn't be surprised if this stone proved harder than anything we can take to it."

"You mentioned a volcano," Michael said.

Akako drew the box out of her pocket and tossed it to him. Michael leaped back as though it were a poisonous snake.

"The box will neutralize the gem's ill effects," she said calmly. "It is safe to handle."

Michael gingerly picked it up and was surprised to find that it weighed very little.

"The Philosopher's Stone is not pure carmot," she explained. "Pure carmot would sink in the lava of a volcano. The Stone is treated, though, with several different substances; as a result, it is nearly as light as air, and will float on water, let alone lava. It would merely be a matter of skimming it off the top. A determined and resourceful individual should find no trouble in doing so."

Michael frowned. "Then how do we destroy it?"

Akako took the box again. "I don't know."

"That's exactly what I was hoping /not/ to hear," Michael groaned.

"I will do everything in my power to get rid of it," she said, glancing at Kaito. "For his sake."

Michael looked a bit nervous. "You don't mean--"

"No, he's not dead, silly," she said cheerfully. "But that's why he was looking for it, isn't it?"

"We were just looking around and got lost," Michael fibbed. "We weren't looking for anything."

Akako glared at him. "Why do you think he went along on your camping trip?"

"Because I invited him," Michael said innocently.

"And he invited his high-school classmates because...?" she prompted. "The only reason he'd do that is for cover."

"To cover what?" Kaito asked from the floor, wincing as he spoke.

Akako shot him a withering glare. "Did I ever mention that it's no use hiding things from me?"

Kaito grunted as he sat up. "I don't think so."

"I certainly /showed/ you so," she retorted.

"You /still/ think I'm the Kid?" Kaito pretended incredulosity.

She sighed in exasperation.

"I take it you're over your mania?" Michael asked nonchalantly.

"Oh..." Kaito rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, sorry about that. I don't know what got into me." He looked around in sudden alarm. "Where did it go?"

Akako patted her dress. "I'm keeping it."

Kaito looked concerned. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Do you have a better suggestion?" Michael asked dryly. "Because if not, our comrades are probably waiting for us at the entrance. I have no doubt the murder has been solved and the murderer apprehended by now."

Kaito nodded, sighing. "Let's go, then." 


	31. Chapter 30

"Where were you?" Aoko asked Kaito when they came out. "We were worried when neither the policemen, Heiji, or Conan-kun saw you on their way out!"

"Did you go off the path?" the guide asked them severely.

Kaito and Michael looked at each other. "Umm... well..."

"Yes," said Akako flatly. "They did. But I found them and dragged them back here."

"Thank you, Koizumi-san," Aoko said, smiling at her.

Kaito and Michael frowned in unison. "Of course /she's/ the good guy," Michael muttered.

"Where did you go?" Haibara asked him quietly.

"Off the trail," Michael answered guiltily.

"Where off the trail?" she persisted.

"I don't know," he said. "Not far."

She frowned but relented, for now.

Michael glanced over at her. He supposed that the discovery would interest her, but there was only so much one could do what with hiding his secret identity and avoiding the Organization. She'd just have to remain in the dark.

--

Kaito and his friends apparently figured Agasa would cancel the trip on account of the murder; when he didn't, they expressed a small amount of surprise.

"It happens every day," Genta said, shrugging the matter off. "If we went home every time we saw a murder, we'd be there all the time."

He was exaggerating, of course, and Agasa was quick to correct the impression, but said that they planned to go ahead and stay.

The only one who wasn't particularly interested in that arrangement was Akako, who, Michael supposed, was eager to get to work unraveling the secrets of the Philosopher's Stone. She didn't mention the real reason she wanted to get back, of course, but she did make arrangements to head back to Tokyo.

The rest of them had a great time in the great outdoors, going fishing in a small pond--though admittedly the three youngest had the most fun: everyone else(excepting Kaito of course) was upset because the fish went into hiding the moment the Terrifying Trio approached their domain--hiking in the woods, and in general relaxing after the first week of school.

Though, of course, for Michael and Kaito, it was a well-earned and delayed reward for their week of heists. No one else knew--though Hakuba perhaps suspected--since Akako had left, and they were free to enjoy their R&R time.

"Say, Conan," Michael asked, joining Heiji and Conan under a tree where the two were talking. "Who did it?"

Heiji looked momentarily guilty. "Did what?"

Michael glanced at him. "The murder."

"Oh, that," Heiji laughed nervously.

Conan rolled his eyes at Heiji. "It turns out it was the electrician," he said to Michael. "Apparently the deceased was blackmailing him. The fellow saw him wandering, alone, and took justice into his own hands. His fingerprints were the only ones found on the rock, in the places it would have been held to strike the fatal blow."

"Why was he wandering through the caves, though?" Michael wondered.

Conan sighed. "That's what's bothering me."

"Blackmail," Michael muttered. "You don't suppose--" He broke off. "No. Impossible."

"Actually it's possible that the victim was supposed to meet someone who never showed up," Conan said. "There were signs of a small box or package that had been dropped during the scuffle, but the murderer didn't have it and didn't have any idea what it could be."

"You think they were perhaps photographs or something being used for blackmail," Michael supplied.

"Yes."

Heiji shrugged. "But we searched everybody, even our group, and no one had anything matching that description. No pictures or anything."

"If it were me," Conan pointed out, "I'd have destroyed the incriminating evidence rather than stolen it."

"So were there traces of a third person, then?"

Conan started to say something, then looked over at Heiji. They stared at each other for a minute. "No," Conan said slowly.

"Then assuming the electrician was telling the truth--"

"He was," Conan said flatly. Heiji nodded is agreement.

Michael felt his blood run cold. "There's only one explanation I can think of."

Conan paled as Michael's meaning dawned on him. "Im-impossible!"

"What?" Heiji asked, not understanding.

"The Black Organization." Conan swore under his breath. "We missed them by a few minutes."

/Yeah/ Michael thought, /but did we? Did they see us--and Pandora?/ 


	32. Chapter 31

Kaito's cell phone rang as they were disassembling the camp the next morning. "Hello?" he answered.

"We have your girlfriend," an obviously masked voice said.

Kaito glanced over at where Aoko was helping Ran and Kazuha stow away their tent. "Umm, I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong number..."

"You are Kaito Kuroba?" the voice asked harshly.

"Yes, but see, she's right here."

"You are a fool," the voice said, hanging up abruptly.

"What was that about?" Michael asked, shoving the tent stakes into their pouch.

"Some wierdo said that he has my girlfriend," Kaito shrugged.

The answer hit them both at the same time. They gaped at each other for only a moment. "Akako!"

"She left," Aoko said, looking up. "Remember?"

Kaito looked around frantically. "Hattori!" he hollered.

Heiji hurried over. "What's wrong?"

"Akako's been kidnapped," Kaito said hurriedly. "Tell Hakuba I'm taking his car."

"Kidnapped!" Hattori exclaimed. "I'm coming."

"What happened?" Conan asked, his ears perking up at the word "kidnapped".

"Apparently Koizumi-san got kidnapped on her way home," Michael told him. "We don't know why," he added untruthfully.

Conan glanced at him but said nothing. Kaito opened the door and got into the drivers' seat; Conan and Michael jumped in the back while Heiji slid into the front passenger's seat.

Just then Hakuba ran up and kicked Kaito into the back seat. He took the wheel and they were off.

"Where to?" Hakuba asked.

Kaito paused, then looked sheepish. "Ah, I don't know."

Michael looked up from his laptop. "Downtown Tokyo, the Tower area."

Hakuba glanced back at him. "Why do you say that?"

"That's where the call originated," Michael said. "It was a cell phone. The tower it was connected to is one of the ones that services the Tokyo Tower area."

Hakuba looked dubious. "Just go!" Kaito snapped. Hakuba went.

Kaito's phone rang again. "Are you prepared to be reasonable this time?" the same voice asked.

"Do you have Koizumi?" Kaito demanded.

"Yes," the voice answered. "If you want to see her again, go to the Tokyo Tower. Someone will be waiting for you in the restaurant." There was a click as whoever was on the other end hung up.

Kaito shoved his phone back into his pocket. "Tokyo Tower. The restaurant."

Michael looked up from his computer screen. "I was able to trace the call. It's not looking good."

"How so?" Conan asked, looking blankly at the mass of numbers and letters moving in confused patterns across Michael's screen.

Michael glanced at Hakuba uneasily. "Umm..."

Conan frowned. "I think I get the picture."

Hakuba scowled. "I'm glad /you/ do," he said, "but I'm still very much in the dark. Is or is not this a simple kidnapping?" He glanced at Kaito meaningfully.

Conan sighed. "Well--"

Michael held up his hand, then reached up and yanked Hakuba's cheek, hard.

"Ow!" he exploded, knocking Michael back into the seat. "What was that for!"

"We had to make sure," Conan said.

"Of what? That I'm not the Kid?" Hakuba glared at him in the mirror. "Because if that's what you're worried about--"

"Shut UP already," Kaito snapped irritably. "That's not the problem."

"Then what is?"

Michael's eyes narrowed as he looked at Heiji. The eyes looking back were cold, and familiar. They were not Hattori Heiji's.

Kaito was glaring at him too. Conan looked at them in confusion. "Hattori's not--"

Kaito reached up for Heiji's face. Before his hand could reach him, though, it was caught in a firm grip. "Nicely done, gentlemen," said a nauseatingly familiar voice. Conan's eyes widened as he realized who was actually sitting in the front seat.

"Vermouth."

She peeled her mask off. "Precisely what I expected of you."

Michael scowled. "Somehow that doesn't bode well for us."

She grinned coldly. "Ordinarily, no." 


	33. Chapter 32

"Ordinarily," Conan said flatly. "Is there such a thing?"

She ignored his question. "Saguru-san, please keep heading toward the Tower. I'm sorry to have to spring this on you so suddenly, but..." she shrugged.

"So why are you here?" Kaito asked.

"More to the point," Hakuba said, irritated at getting only non-answers, "who ARE you?"

She smirked. "You're the detective. You tell me."

"Bah," Kaito snorted. "He can't even figure out who Kaitou Kid is."

Hakuba glared at him, and Michael suppressed a snicker.

Conan looked at Vermouth. "To be or not to be..."

"Flip a coin," suggested Michael.

Conan sighed. "All right. You're sure Kaito can be trusted?" he glanced over at him. "No offense."

"None taken," Kaito said seriously.

"Absolutely," Michael nodded.

Conan glanced back up at Hakuba. "Then you two are the only ones in here who don't know that I'm actually Kudo Shinichi."

"I wondered," Hakuba said quietly.

"You did not," Kaito promptly shot back.

"Shut up, Kaito," he growled. "I knew he was way too smart for a primary student."

"Thank you," Conan said. "Anyway, I was shrunk like this by a couple goons from a highly secret, international crime syndicate. I have been forced to go under the name Edogawa Conan to avoid detection, though--" he looked at Vermouth with some annoyance--"it hasn't worked flawlessly. She--Vermouth--recognized my true identity. I have no idea why, but she didn't give it away to the rest of the Organization, for which I am grateful." He nodded reluctantly at her.

"You're welcome," she said.

Michael elbowed him at this point and whispered in his ear. "Do me a favor. /Don't/ tell her who I am."

Conan nodded slightly and continued. "That's all I'm going to say with an active member of the Organization two feet away."

Vermouth grinned, catlike. "Ah, but I won't be, if you amateur detectives pull off this rescue properly."

"It'll never happen," Michael snapped. "You can forget it now."

Conan looked puzzled. "Umm, what are you talking about?"

Vermouth looked at him. "They didn't tell you?"

Kaito and Michael scowled at her. She got the hint. "Oh, sorry." She winked at them. "Let's just say this kidnapped girl has something I'm interested in."

Michael fidgeted uneasily. There was no way they were going to let her get the gem.

And of course that was her goal; what else could it be? She, or another agent, must have seen them when they found the jewel. Michael suspected that it was whoever got the package from the unfortunate victim of the murder in the cave.

They'd kidnapped Akako for the jewel. But then why were they holding her instead of just taking the gem and dispatching her? It didn't seem to click with their modus operandi.

Then again...

It clicked.

Of course, Michael realized. Vermouth had spotted them retrieving the stone. She'd alerted the Organization when Akako headed back, and they caught her at some point along the way. How she got caught, Michael wasn't sure; she seemed to do just fine with leveling Kaito. Maybe she was reluctant to practice her art in public.

At any rate, it seemed probable that Vermouth was the only one who knew that Akako had the Stone. Which made their job slightly easier, but not much.

"Why did they kidnap her?" Conan asked suddenly.

Michael's face flickered, expecting a full disclosure. Instead, Vermouth glanced back at him and Kaito. "That's not for me to say."

Conan looked over at Kaito and Michael. "All right, you two. I think I've had enough with the secrecy. Out with it."

Kaito and Michael exchanged glances. "Not yet," Kaito said finally.

"When?" Conan pressed.

"When we're assured of Hakuba's full cooperation in the matter," Michael said bluntly.

Everyone looked at Hakuba. "What does he have to do with anything?" Conan asked. Hakuba looked just as uncertain.

Kaito sighed. "This is kind of difficult with /her/ in the car." He jerked his thumb towards Vermouth.

"I already know," she reminded him.

"Actually," Kaito said, "you know nothing at all."

There was a puff of smoke, and suddenly Kaito and Hakuba had switched places. He slammed on the brakes and twisted the wheel hard, slamming Vermouth against her door. Michael released the catch, and she tumbled out into the street in a most undignified manner. Then Michael slammed the door closed again and the car took off.

After doing a quick sweep for surveillance devices, Michael and Kaito high-fived. Hakuba and Conan stared from the back, still not entirely sure of what had just happened. "Did we lose her?" Conan looked out the back window.

"Yes," Kaito said briefly. "Hey, isn't that--" A motorcycle roared toward them, skidding to a stop in their lane. Kaito slammed on the brakes quickly and barely avoided a wreck.

"Where is she!?" an indignant, clearly Osakan, voice bellowed. Despite the fact that the doors and windows were closed securely, his voice was easily audible to all the passengers.

Conan shoved his door open. "Hattori!"

"Where did that woman go?" Heiji blazed furiously.

Conan jerked his thumb down the road. "Down there about half a mile. In the middle of the road."

"Get in, Hattori-san," Michael suggested. "I think you might find this more interesting."

"How so?" Heiji eyed him suspiciously.

"A kidnapping, orchestrated by /that woman/." Michael was right; the suggestion caught Heiji's attention. "We've got to get to Tokyo Tower, fast."

Heiji nodded. "I'll meet you there, then," he said. "Come on, K-k-Conan-kun." He tossed Conan a helmet and hopped back on his motorbike.

Hakuba booted Kaito out of the driver's seat and took the wheel again. "Now, what were you saying?" he asked as they started back down the road.

Kaito shrugged mischeviously. "I'm thinking we need to get you kidnapped or something."

"Why?" Hakuba asked guardedly.

"Because we need these guys to chase you," Kaito answered. "Then we can have a common goal."

"I thought yours was to steal jewelry," Hakuba retorted.

"Idiot," Kaito snapped. "Get that out of your head. This is way more important."

"That's something I never thought I'd hear you say," Hakuba smirked. "Something more important than /the/ Kaitou Kid."

"There's the Tower," Kaito said, pointing ahead to the skyline. "Let's step on it!"

Hakuba complied, only to be stopped by a set of flashing lights in his rearview mirror. "Kaito!" He looked over at his not-friend--or rather, where he'd been. Kaito and Michael had vanished. 


	34. Chapter 33

"I still have some things at the restaurant," Kid told Carmen over their earpiece radios. They swooped in towards the roof, hang-gliders slicing silently through the air. "They may come in handy."

"Good," Carmen acknowledged. "I have a few interesting cartridges, but I didn't figure I'd need most of them. I think I have a couple smoke bombs, a shockwave, and--ooh, a flashbang! But that's it."

"That'll have to do," Kid said.

They hit the roof. Kid lowered a small camera and scanned the interior of the restaurant. He noted the various patrons--of which there were a couple dozen at this time of day--and then they headed down the stairs, switching back to civilian clothes at the same time.

"I have been waiting for you," a voice hissed as they came out of the roof access door. The voice belonged to a woman Michael didn't recognize. "You are here for the exchange, no?" She looked around. "That table, over there," she said, pointing to an empty table near the window.

Kaito and Michael sat down cautiously.

"You weren't so foolish as to bring police, I hope," she said, glaring at them.

"No," Kaito said shortly.

"Good," the woman continued quietly. "I will warn you that we have snipers positioned on some of the surrounding skyscrapers. I have but to give the signal to have them put a bullet through your head."

"Understood," Kaito said tightly.

"About the girl. I will propose a prisoner exchange."

"I'm sorry?" Kaito looked as though he hadn't heard her quite right.

"There's someone we're looking for. This person." She slid a photograph across the table to Kaito. "You find her and tell us. When she is in our custody, your girlfriend will be released."

"I'm telling you, she's not my girlfriend," Kaito retorted. He picked up the photograph and studied it, then passed it to Michael.

Michael's poker face clicked on as he recognized the all too familiar face of Miyano Shiho. Underneath the photograph was written, "SHERRY", in a peculiar scrawling slant.

--

Michael forced himself to keep quiet. He handed the photograph back.

"Where can we find her?" Kaito asked.

"That's your job to find out," their contact said calmly. She placed the photograph back into her purse.

"So are we to go based entirely off of this photograph, then?" Kaito asked, frowning. "That could take months to search Tokyo alone."

"We are fairly certain she is still in the Tokyo area," she said flatly. "She went by the name of Miyano Shiho. That's all I can tell you."

Kaito scowled. "It may take a while."

"I expected that," the woman returned, standing up. "I will warn you, however, that we only have provisions for her for two weeks. After that..." she shrugged. "Have a nice day." With that, the woman disappeared into the crowd.

"Have a nice day, she says," Kaito grumbled.

Michael found a miniature transmitter and snapped it in half. "Persistent little critters."

Conan and Heiji rushed in through the elevator doors. They quickly spotted Kaito and Michael and hurried over.

"Too late," Michael said melancholically. He tossed the scraps of the bug on the table.

Heiji and Conan sat down. "What do you mean?"

"She's being held elsewhere," Kaito said. "The contact said--" He hesitated.

Michael frowned. "We really don't have a choice," he said quietly to Kaito. Turning to Conan, he added, "This is probably not the best place to do this."

"Agreed," Kaito said quickly. "Follow me." He led the way to the roof access stairwell.

The wind whistled through the structural supports of the Tower as Kaito looked out over Tokyo. "It's like this..." he said slowly. He turned.

Conan and Heiji blinked. "Kaitou Kid!?"

"Yes." Kid frowned. "I have a proposition to make. I'd like to propose that we work together towards a common goal--that being the defeat of the Organization."

"Hence the reluctance to include Hakuba," Carmen added. "He has barely even heard of the Organization, let alone been threatened by them."

"So you are the only one we felt comfortable working with," Kid said to Conan. "I'm taking a huge risk here and I'm hoping you'll be kind enough to extend to me the same favor I have extended to you."

Conan nodded slowly. "I see where you're coming from," he said slowly. "But I can't condone your actions."

Carmen grinned. "That's because you don't know the motive."

"Motive?" Heiji asked, looking at Kid.

"What?" Kid protested. "You thought I put my life on the line for fun?"

"Well, yes," Heiji admitted.

Kaito looked as though he were about to retort, but paused. "Well, that's only part of it," he conceded. "The biggest thing, though, is that I'm hunting the men who killed my father."

"Kuroba Toichi," Conan said.

"The magician? I thought he died in a stage accident," said Heiji, puzzled.

"That's what they set it up to look like," Kaito explained.

"Apparently the Organization was looking for a gemstone known as Pandora," Carmen explained. "They tried to recruit Kuroba-san, but he turned them down. In revenge, they orchestrated his death at one of his performances."

"That's the other thing," Kid added. "Pandora. It's a mythological gemstone which is supposed to 'cry' tears which, when drunk, will grant immortality. They wanted my father to find it and steal it for them."

Conan raised his eyebrows skeptically. "Somehow I can't imagine the Organization going after a fairy tale."

"Yes, well," Carmen said, "it's more than a fairy tale. Way more."

Conan stared at her. "What do you mean?"

"The Philosopher's Stone is real," Kid said quietly. 


	35. Chapter 34

"Look... this isn't funny," Heiji said nervously. "If this is your idea of a joke--"

"It's not," Kid snorted. "My jokes are way funnier. This is dead serious. Emphasis on the dead."

"Vermouth knows about it," Carmen said. "That's why she disguised as Hattori and followed us. She got the Organization to kidnap Akako, who actually has the Stone right now, but they apparently are unaware of that. She wanted us to try to rescue her so that she could get her hands on Pandora, but apparently Gin had other ideas."

"And now," Kid said, looking back out over Tokyo, "they're offering a prisoner exchange."

"Who for who?" Conan asked, confused.

"Koizumi Akako for Miyano Shiho."

Conan gasped. "You're not--"

Carmen smirked. "Idiot, I'm not dumb. There's no way I'd even tell her about the situation. Knowing her, she'd try to sacrifice herself with nary a thought for the consequences. However..."

"We have only two weeks to come up with a plan," Kid finished.

--

"Something's happening that no one will tell me about," Haibara complained to Michael.

He smiled apologetically. "I'm sure there's a reason--"

"I know there's a reason," she said, shoving her hands into the pockets of her lab coat. "That's not going to keep me from trying to find out though."

Michael looked at her. "Say, Haibara," he said slowly. "What components did you use to create the apotoxin?"

She gave him an odd look. "Why?"

"Were there any you didn't know the source of?" he asked. "You didn't know exactly where they came from or what they were composed of?"

"Most of them," she said. "I just ordered the chemicals. I didn't ask for them from anywhere in particular."

"So you ordered all of the chemicals you used, then?" Michael continued.

"Y-no, actually," she said, thinking. "There was one container of a hydrocarbon compound that my mot-predecessor had left, I think. But that was gone shortly after I started producing them for field testing, so I had to order more."

Michael frowned. "I suppose the container is not retrievable."

"Of course not," Haibara laughed. "Why?"

"I was just curious," he said absently. "I wondered if its molecular structure was precisely identical to the new blend. Say, how many doses did you make with that old stuff?"

"Ah--three, I think. Oh!" She stared at him. "You don't suppose--"

"What was it Dr. Jekyll said?" Michael said grimly. "'For God's sake, get me some of the old'?"

She slammed her fist into the wall. "No wonder I haven't been able to make any progress beyond a temporary cure! I don't even know what I'm looking at!"

"You said it was a hydrocarbon compound," Michael said.

"Yes," she said. "It had some similarities to cyclohexane, but it was way more complicated. It was almost like..." she shook her head. "I don't know what."

"Does the word 'carmot' mean anything to you?" Michael asked suddenly.

Haibara blinked at the sudden change of subject. "Carmot?"

He nodded.

"Well..." she thought for a minute. "It sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it... where did you hear about it?"

"It's supposed to be the primary substance of the Philosopher's Stone," Michael said, shrugging. "I figured it might refer to a project along your lines or something."

"Now that you mention it..." she mused. "That's right, her notes... my mother mentioned something about it, but she didn't take very good notes and I had no idea what it was referring to."

"Interesting," Michael said slowly. "Your magic potion may be magic after all."

"It's probably just contaminated with something else," Haibara said.

"Yeah," Michael said, "but what? What do you suppose would cause the toxin to behave differently?"

She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again. "I don't know," she admitted finally.

"Figures." Michael shoved his hands in his pockets. "I don't suppose her notes survived?"

"They may have," Haibara said, "if someone thought to grab them. I certainly didn't."

"What did they look like?" Michael asked absently.

"A stack of papers," Haibara said dryly. "What were you thinking of?"

"Sorry," he said, shaking his head. "My mind was wandering. Umm, this is kind of a personal question, but--how well did you know your mother? I mean, would you be able to recognize her handwriting?"

"Yes, of course," Haibara said. "Her lab notes were all hand-written."

"No, I mean besides those," Michael said, shaking his head. "Have you seen any other samples of her handwriting?"

Haibara paused, thinking. "No... I don't think so. Why?"

"So then, are you sure those lab notes were your mother's?" Michael asked.

She looked at him funny. "What is going on here?"

"Please, just answer the question," he said.

"Now that you mention it," she said slowly, "she never did write her name..."

"They were all written in Japanese, slightly worn paper, like it was several years old?" Michael asked.

"I only handled photocopies," she said.

"Does this ring a bell: 'Those who try to twist the flow of time to their own ends will assuredly fail'?"

Her mouth dropped open. "Yes, that was in several of the pages... but how did you know?"

Michael smiled grimly. "Those weren't your mother's notes." 


	36. Chapter 35

Gin faced the silvery-haired woman at the end of the hall. "Vermouth," he spat. "You came."

Vermouth looked at him calmly. "Is there a problem with that?"

"No," he said slowly. "Not at all."

Three burly guards appeared out of nowhere and pinned her arms to her sides. A fourth frisked her roughly, appropriating two handguns and an ammunition belt.

"What's going on?" she snapped, eyes flashing as she struggled against the grip of the guards.

Gin smiled, but it wasn't a cheerful smile. It was positively malevolent. "The game's up, Vermouth-san."

--

"/That person/ has betrayed us," Gin said, smashing his fist into the wooden table he was standing behind. It creaked in protest. "He has been working behind our backs to eliminate us from the picture once he had no use for us. And /she/ is his tool!" He pointed angrily at Vermouth, tied securely to a chair in the corner of the room.

"This is why I called you here," Gin said coldly, looking around the room at the Organization's upper echelon. "From now on, you will report directly to me. Take no orders from /that person/ or his subordinates. If you do, and I find out--" His eyes were like flint. "I will kill you myself."

"This is a coup, then," one of them observed.

"Yes," Gin said, glaring at him. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"No," the speaker said hastily. "I can't think of a better man for the job."

Gin let the comment slide. "Now--" he began, but was interrupted by a knock at the door.

A young man, one of the many hired guards in the building, poked his head in. "There's some folks at the door," he said, sounding worried. "They said to tell my boss that they brought Shiho."

Vermouth's eyes flickered for a moment, but she said nothing.

A cruel smile spread across Gin's face. "Bring them up," he said.

Kaito, Michael, and the woman called Miyano Shiho--in handcuffs-- were escorted roughly into the conference room. Michael's face gave away nothing as he looked around at all the people in the room.

"Sherry," Gin said slowly. "It's been a while."

"Not long enough," she snapped.

Gin cracked a smile. "Fiery to the end, hmm?" He whipped out his gun suddenly, aiming it at her head, and--

Michael twirled it nonchalantly on his finger. "We didn't bring her all this way to get her killed."

Gin scowled at him, then gestured at Vodka. He raised his pistol, only to have it bisected by a flying playing card.

"You can have your fun after we've left," Kaito snapped. "I don't particularly want to be witness to a bloody murder."

Gin frowned. "Very well. You!" he pointed at one of his guards. "Bring the hostage here. Now."

The guard hurried off and returned shortly, pushing Akako ahead of him.

"It's about time you showed up," Akako snorted at Kaito. "You certainly took your time about it."

"I couldn't help it," Kaito said cheerfully. "The FBI took forever to get ahold of."

/FBI?/ "Kill them," Gin snapped.

"I don't think so," said one of the guards in an Osakan accent. He peeled off his mask, revealing Hattori Heiji. Then, from somewhere--he only knew where--he whisked out a katana and took up a ready stance.

The other guard's mask came off too, revealing--to Gin's shock as he recognized him--Kudo Shinichi. He raised a 9-mm pistol.

Shiho's handcuffs slipped off and clattered to the floor, revealing her snub-nosed pocket pistol.

Akako disappeared somewhere, no one knew exactly where.

Kaito and Michael had already vanished, taking up strategic positions in the vicinity of the ceiling.

Almost simultaneously, the thunder of helicopter rotors filled the room as lights from below lit up the exterior of the building. The person closest to the window looked out, calling that the building was surrounded by cops.

"It's no use," Kudo said calmly. "We have you surrounded. If you drop your weapons and surrender now, you'll be much better off in the eyes of the law."

Several FBI agents burst into the room, brandishing P-90s, and ordered everyone to line up along the wall. Everyone hurried to obey, dropping their weapons as they went.

In the confusion, Michael noted that Gin had managed to disappear. Vermouth also had somehow slipped her bonds and was nowhere to be seen.

Then he realized that Shiho was gone too.

In a flash he and Kaito were out the door. "They'll have gone to the roof," Michael said, racing down the hallway. Kaito nodded and increased his speed.

"Stop," a voice ordered, with the sound of a pistol cocking for emphasis.

Kaito froze, turning slowly. The big man whose gun Kaito had bisected was pointing another one at him.

"Die!" he spat. Then he crumpled into a heap on the floor.

Michael was braced halfway up the doorway behind him, slipping the pistol he'd just knocked out Vodka with back into his jacket. "Not today," he said, hopping lightly over the sleeping form.

Kaito grinned and they headed back to the roof. 


	37. Chapter 36

Shinichi looked up suddenly. "Haibara!" He rushed out of the room and headed for the staircase, followed shortly by Heiji.

--

"Ah, Sherry," Gin said, stepping out from behind the FBI helicopter. "I knew you'd come."

Shiho faced him coldly. "I suggest you turn yourself in. It'll go easier on you that way."

"Since when have you ever been concerned with my well-being?" Gin asked pointedly.

She shrugged.

Her face blanched as he raised his weapon. "Traitor!" he spat.

A shot rang out, and she collapsed.

Gin looked back towards the helicopter. "D& you Vermouth!" he roared, throwing away the now useless pistol.

Vermouth raised her own pistol in salute. "Don't hurt my girl," she said, cranking up the engine. The rotors gained speed, and the helicopter lifted off just as Kaito, Michael, Heiji, and Shinichi hit the roof.

Shinichi swore and let loose with a soccer ball. It smashed through one window, but the helicopter kept going.

In the meantime Heiji was holding Gin down while Kaito frisked him for weapons. Michael, worried, was crouched near Shiho, checking for injuries.

She gasped as her eyes fluttered open. "Wh-I'm--I'm not dead?"

"Apparently not," Michael said, helping her sit up. "Which may or may not be good for you. Gin's been--" He broke off as Heiji let out a cry. Gin had somehow twisted himself free and was heading straight for them.

Shiho's face paled. Michael's was set in determination as he moved to block his path, seemingly in slow motion.

There was a brilliant flare, and then Gin staggered, clutching his stomach, and fell to the floor, writhing. Michael just stared as Akako's broom touched down.

She held up a little Gin doll, impaled by a knife. "I didn't waste all of my time there, at least."

Kaito shuddered. Shinichi and Heiji stared blankly. Shiho just lay back and closed her eyes.

--

"So they got everybody?" Shiho asked from her bed at the Professor's house.

"Almost," Michael said, scanning through the official brief. "It figures. Vermouth's helicopter trick actually worked, and she disabled its transponder so they have no idea where she landed either."

Shiho sighed. "Ah well."

The door clicked open. "Feeling all right?" asked Jodie, stepping into the room.

"Oh, Jodie-sensei!" Shiho exclaimed.

Jodie frowned. "How is it that you're able to change between child and adult, anyway?" Her gaze wandered around the room, and she saw Michael, who was staring at her. Then she saw what was on the screen and her jaw dropped.

"Where--how did you get my report?" she asked, accusingly.

Michael stammered, "Uh--I--that is, uh--"

"Professor asked Mr. Black to send over a copy," Shiho improvised smoothly.

"Oh," Jodie said, still looking at Michael. "I'm sorry, you just... look like someone I knew."

Michael regained his composure. "Oh, I see."

Jodie turned back to Shiho, who was now sitting up with her legs crossed. "Care to explain?"

"E-explain?"

"How you change between being a child and an adult," Jodie pressed.

"It's a long story," she stalled.

"I have time," Jodie retorted.

Shiho sighed, then began to explain.

--

"So where did you meet her?" Shiho asked after Jodie-sensei left.

Michael frowned. "She was the one FBI agent that opposed my escape plan. She also was the only person who had any inkling as to my capabilities with a computer, and that's probably why."

Shiho smirked. "I see."

Michael snapped his fingers. "I have something to show you." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, ornately decorated box.

She gasped when he popped it open, revealing an unusually large, sparkling stone.

"What is it?" she asked, mesmerized.

"You're not going to believe this," he warned, "but it's the Philosopher's Stone." 


	38. Chapter 37

She looked at him. "You're right, I don't," she said dryly.

He snapped it closed again, and set it on the workbench. "You should."

She looked at him, trying to decide if he was teasing her.

"I'm serious." He was.

"The Philosopher's Stone," she said incredulously.

"Yes. I'm predicting that you'll find that that mysterious contaminant originated from here." He tapped the box. "But there's one thing though. It has a nasty habit of turning whoever handles it into a self-serving monster, intent only on keeping the stone at all costs."

She raised her eyebrows.

"If I were kidding," he said, scowling, "I'd have chosen something funnier."

She shrugged. "So how do I run tests on it then?"

Michael shrugged. "That, I don't know. Unless..." he hesitated. "I'm going to try something. If I start acting weird--" he pointed to Conan's watch, sitting on the table next to her. "Knock me out. Then put the stone back in the box without touching it."

"Wait, what are you--" Shiho slipped off the bed in alarm.

Michael popped open the case and scooped the Stone into his hand.

--

Several moments passed and nothing happened. Shiho slowly picked up the watch and clicked it open, just in case.

Michael finally set the Stone back into its protective case. "That settles it, then."

"What?" Shiho set the watch down.

He offered her the case. "Your potion seems to counter the Stone's harmful effects. I don't know why."

She took it slowly, examining in awe the jewel nestled safely inside. "This is the contaminant?"

"No," Michael said as she took it over to her workbench. "Notice how light it is, almost weightless."

She took it out warily. "Amazing... it's like a soap bubble! I feel like it'll break if I squeeze it too hard."

"I wish," Michael muttered. "It's apparently way more difficult to destroy than that. If you can find a way while you're experimenting on it, though, do so. Please."

She looked at him gravely. "Yes. Humanity won't be able to handle it."

She took out a few items and began to run some experiments on the Stone. "I'll let you know when I've got something."

Michael nodded and turned back to his computer.

--

--

"Shinichi!" The voice was agonizingly familiar. He turned in time to see Ran running towards him, followed closely by Kazuha and--Kaito's friend, umm... Aoko? Yeah.

"Hey, Ran!" he called cheerfully.

"I-I heard that you finished the case you were working on," Ran said tentatively.

Shinichi looked startled for a moment. "Ah, well, kind of--" he said uncertainly.

His cell phone rang. "Just a moment," he excused himself. "Hello?"

"Kudo," said an exhausted voice. "I think we've done it. We're ready for a live test of the antidote whenever you're ready."

Shinichi's face lit up. "Wonderful! I'll be there this evening."

"Before you regress, if you don't mind," Shiho added. "So 'as soon as possible' means within the next three hours."

Shinichi frowned. "All right," he sighed.

He hung up the phone and turned back to the waiting Ran. "Good news. It looks like the case is finally wrapping up."

"I'm glad," she said happily. "So you'll be coming back to school then?"

"Yes," Shinichi said, "though I've missed practically a whole year." He frowned.

Ran smiled. "I saved my notes from last year," she said. "You can use them to catch up."

Shinichi grinned. "Ran, you're great," he said. "Hey, I've got to go finish up something, but do you want to go out for dinner?"

"Of course!" Ran said, smiling happily.

Shinichi waved and hurried off.

"Somehow," Ran said, watching him, "I think he's really back for good this time."

-- 


	39. Chapter 38

"Haibara!" Shinichi yelled, slamming Agasa's door open harder than it was meant to be opened.

"You're certainly in a hurry," Michael said from the couch. He didn't lift his eyes from the screen of his laptop. "The antidote won't be ready for another fifteen minutes or so."

Shinichi sighed. Then he chuckled. "You know," he said, "it looks really weird for some reason to see you sitting there blazing away at a hundred words per minute on the keyboard."

"Two hundred," Michael said, glancing down at an indicator in the corner of his screen. "Actually."

"What are you doing?" he asked, moving around so he could see the screen.

"That depends," Michael said, not slowing his pace. "Will you tell Starling-san?"

Shinichi blinked. "Umm, maybe I don't want to know."

Someone opened the front door--though considerably more quietly than Shinichi had done, just a few moments ago.

"Shin-chan!" a pretty woman called, catching sight of him. She rushed over.

"Uh, hi, Mom--" Shinichi broke off as he was smothered in a bear hug.

Yuusaku chuckled as he hung up his coat. "Any word on that Vermouth yet?" he asked.

"No," Shinichi said when he finally managed to extricate himself. "I was hoping to ask you that."

Yuusaku shook his head. "Inspector Megure found the helicopter, though, or rather what remained of it. Someone reported an explosion just outside of Tokyo; when the police reported, they discovered the charred wreckage. There was no blood, and no body, so they're saying she got away before it crashed."

"More likely than not," Michael said. "Are you his parents?"

"Oh, yeah," Shinichi said. "Mom and Dad, this is Okuda Michael, the kid I told you about. Michael, these are my parents, Kudo Yuusaku and Yukiko."

Michael narrowed his eyes. "Yuusaku? The guy who writes the Night Baron series?"

Yuusaku's penetrating gaze swept over him and his laptop. "Yes."

Michael grinned mischeviously. "I seem to recall you wanting to do a novel on the Night Baron versus the creator of the virus of the same name, no?"

A smirk spread across Yuusaku's face. "Are you still interested?"

"Of course," Michael returned. "It'll give me something intellectual to do while I work through elementary school." He snapped his computer shut.

"Umm..." Shinichi looked between the two of them. "Have you two met?"

"Not in person," Yuusaku said, his gaze never leaving Michael.

"I happened upon his computer where he had a half-finished draft of one of his novels," Michael explained.

"He offered me some advice regarding the technobabble I used," Yuusaku said with a chuckle. "And a commentary on the storyline."

Michael grinned. "I always wanted to write a novel. Failing that, I always wanted to get someone else to publish one for me."

"So then I asked if he'd be interested in working on a novel with a hacker playing a more prominent part," Yuusaku concluded.

"At that time I had to turn him down," Michael scowled. "Because I found myself in an extenuating situation which would make a novel in and of itself, thanks to our favorite scientist."

"Someone called?" Shiho asked, coming up from the basement. She looked at Shinichi. "The antidote's ready when you are."

"You're Haibara, then?" Yuusaku looked her over.

"Yes," she said, glancing at him. "Though technically it's Miyano Shiho."

"Of course," he nodded. "What's this you were saying about the antidote? I thought you were still hung up on something."

"Yes, well," she glared at Michael, "that brat seems to have figured it out."

"You're welcome," Michael retorted.

"So what was wrong?" Yuusaku asked as they headed down to the lab.

"You're not going to believe this," Shiho said.

"It turns out that the pills she, Shinichi, and I took were part of a batch she'd made with an apparently contaminated solution of a cyclohexane derivative," Michael said. "The contaminant happens to be one of the components of the Philosopher's Stone."

Yuusaku frowned. "The mythical stone capable of granting immortality?" he asked.

"Bingo," Michael nodded. "The Organization has apparently been researching it for quite a while. They got their data from one Soong Li, who claimed he had managed to create the Stone but had reportedly destroyed it 'for the sake of humanity'. Well, it turns out, he couldn't."

"So he did the next best thing," Shiho said. "He hid it."

"And cursed it," Michael added.

She scowled. "Like I'm going to believe that."

"Anyway," Michael finished, "we found it."

"You found the Philosopher's Stone," Yuusaku said, not a little incredulous.

Michael unlocked the Professor's safe and took out the small runed box. He clicked it open.

It was empty. 


	40. Chapter 39

"Umm... Haibara?" Michael turned to her. She looked pale.

"I know I put it in there before coming out..." She hurriedly rushed around, ransacking the various apparatuses, looking for the jewel. It was nowhere to be found.

"Drat," Michael muttered, shoving the case into his pocket. "What worries me most is that it's not in its protective case."

"I thought you said it was indestructable," Shinichi snapped.

"Yes, /it/ is. There's no guarantee about the person carrying it!" Michael leaped up to the nearest window sill and looked out.

"Here," Yuusaku said calmly. He pointed to some faint, almost invisible markings in the dust beneath the latch. "Someone was here."

Michael shoved open the window. "I'll be back."

With that, he dove through and was gone.

--

"Kaito!" he hollered into his cell phone. "We've got trouble!"

"Don't tell me," Kaito said, dreading Michael's response. "It's gone."

"Call Akako," Michael snapped. "We've got to find it. It's no longer in its case."

--

"This is bad, this is bad, this is /bad," Kaito murmured to himself.

"What?" Akako asked, sneaking up on him.

He spun around. "Akako! It's gone."

She didn't need to ask what.

--

A standard-issue police car pulled into a space just in front of the restaurant where Shinichi had promised to meet Ran. She was waiting for him on the sidewalk.

"Ran!" Shinichi called. "Get in, quick."

She didn't stop to question him. Ran slid into the back seat quickly. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"Here," Shinichi said, handing her a paper sack. She opened it to find a couple burgers inside. "I promised we'd go out for supper," he said by way of explanation. "Something came up and we've got to do it a bit differently than I'd planned."

"You didn't answer my question," Ran said. "Where are we going?"

"On a case," Shinichi said, his eyes flashing.

Megure looked over at him. "We've got all units searching for her," he assured him.

Suddenly the radio crackled. "This is Inspector Nakamori! Kaitou Kid has been sighted in the vicinity of the Tokyo Tower! Request permission to pursue!"

Shinichi's face lit up. "Brilliant!"

Megure was about to radio a response when Shinichi laid a hand on his shoulder. "Inspector Megure," he said, grinning. "Tell /all/ units to converge at Tokyo Tower and search for the Kid."

Megure looked at him doubtfully. "Isn't the current mission more important?" he asked.

"Ah," Shinichi said, leaning back. "This /is/ the current mission."

--

One by one, each person was systematically checked for a disguise as he or she left the Tower by a police officer of the appropriate gender. The official story was that a disguised murderer was spotted in the Tower and that everyone had to be checked.

The officers assumed that this was to prevent Kid fans from starting a riot.

They had no idea that the official story was actually closer to the truth.

Kaito knew, though, and he scanned the crowd, looking for something--anything--that would tell him who was Vermouth. He was having absolutely no luck.

Then he saw someone heading up instead of down.

Curious, he followed the distraught-looking man as he headed for the roof. He was babbling incoherently as he stumbled up the steps, clutching something close to his chest.

"Sir!" Kaito called. "Please wait!"

"No!" the 'man' shrieked. "If they won't let me have it, I'm not going to let them have me!"

Kaito triggered the door at the top and several magnetic locks activated, barring progress for anyone unless you happened to have a battering ram or some C-4.

Apparently the man was a battering ram. He slammed into the door, and it buckled, popping free.

Kaito blinked. That wasn't good. He hurried after him up to the roof.

Vermouth had torn off her disguise and thrown it away. Now she was standing on the edge of the roof of the restaurant, staring down into the crowd below.

"Wait!" Kaito called.

"No!" she hollered. "I'll be FREEEE!" She shot her hand up into the air one last time.

That was all it took.

Kaito's card popped the stone right out of her death grip, sending it spiralling off into space; it was only then that he remembered its incredibly low bouyancy.

Vermouth swiped at the jewel which had been plucked from her hand, then swung wildly as she lost her balance and began to fall over the edge.

Kaito dove after her, caught her, and then swooped away from the building's superstructure. Taking one last look at the sky where the stone had disappeared, he went into a nose-dive, aiming at the police car where Shinichi had just clambered on top and was waving wildly.

"Bombs away!" he called, releasing the limp Vermouth directly above Shinichi's head. He caught her carefully, then slid off the roof, watching as Kaito vanished into the crowd.

"The murderer has been apprehended safely," Megure radioed to all the officers. Then he repeated the announcement over the loudspeaker on his car. "Thanks to the cooperation of the famous thief Kaitou Kid," Shinichi added.

"Why was he here, anyway?" Ran asked from the back seat, still a little confused at the commotion. "And what just happened?"

Shinichi laid Vermouth down in the back seat of the cruiser. "We caught a wanted criminal," he said, prying open her fist. It was empty, of course.

Vermouth stirred and opened her eyes. "Wh--Cool Guy," she said, blinking in the bright light. She sat up, looking down at the manacles on her hand. "What--how--" Then she looked up at the Tower.

"What happened?" she asked, rubbing her forehead as best she could.

Shinichi scowled. "You went berserk, enabling us to capture you."

"Us--you're working with Kaitou Kid then?" she looked at him questioningly.

"Not any more," Shinichi said, sliding into the back seat next to her. "Ran, don't let her get past you. Use whatever force necessary."

"Got it," Ran said, a little nervous but pleased to be finally allowed to help somehow. She frowned. "Have we met?" she asked Vermouth.

Vermouth smiled cryptically. "Many times," she said softly. "And we may meet again."

Shinichi snapped up his watch, but it was too late. Vermouth's hand caught it neatly and slipped it around, shooting him with it. "Not again," he murmured, before collapsing.

Ran managed to get in one punch before Vermouth escaped, but her efforts were insufficient and the prisoner escaped.

"Shinichi!" Ran cried, shaking him.

"Don't worry," said a familiar voice. "He's just been anesthetized. He should snap out of it in ten minutes or so."

Ran blinked. "Eh--Michael-kun? What are you doing here?"

Michael grinned. "Watching the show. Can you do me a favor? When he wakes up," Michael gestured at Shinichi, "tell him 'We got it'."

Ran nodded. "What does that mean?"

Michael's face became sober. "It's not for me to say. Ask him." Then he slipped off, leaving Ran alone. 


	41. Chapter 40

"Eh--Ran-neechan?" Shinichi mumbled, trying to focus. He rubbed his eyes. "I--I mean Ran, did she get away?"

Ran looked at him accusingly. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

Shinichi looked vaguely uncomfortable. "Ah, well, you see--"

She scowled. "Shinichi..."

"Yes," he squeaked.

"Start talking, mister," she snapped.

"Not here!" Shinichi protested. "Wait until we get back to my place at least."

"Fine," she said, sitting back. Then something hit her. "Oh, by the way--do you know an Okuda Michael?"

Shinichi blinked. "Uh, yeah, why?"

"He said to tell you 'We got it'," she said. "What does that mean?"

Shinichi grinned in relief. "That means we've completed our objective."

"Now you've /really/ got me confused," she complained. "I thought we were trying to solve a crime. Then we tried to catch a murderer, and Kaitou Kid stepped in to help. Now it's an 'it'?"

Shinichi groaned. "I'll explain it when we get home!"

--

"There he is," Michael pointed as Shinichi appeared on the screen, talking animatedly with Ran.

"Can you get sound?" Kaito asked.

Michael pushed a few buttons on his keyboard, and their voices became audible, if a bit distorted.

"So," Ran said, "we're here. Start talking."

Shinichi was visibly uncomfortable.

"She guessed," Haibara said.

"Looks like it," Michael agreed.

"Well, umm..." Shinichi shrugged helplessly. "I'll start at the beginning. Remember the amusement park?"

"Of course," she said.

"Well, I saw a man in a black suit and followed him. He seemed to be blackmailing someone, and then another man in black snuck up behind me and knocked me down. They forced me to take a poison they'd developed which was supposed to be untraceable. Instead, it shrank me by about ten years."

"So you /were/ Conan," Ran said triumphantly.

"Y-yeah," Shinichi said reluctantly.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Ran asked indignantly.

"Their organization was dangerous, and extensive," Shinichi explained. "I didn't know who I could trust."

"You can trust me!" she retorted angrily.

"Ooh, this isn't shaping up very well," Michael worried.

"Wait and see," Haibara advised.

"But I didn't know that you could keep from accidentally revealing that I was still alive," Shinichi argued. "I even had trouble occasionally."

"So you did," Ran agreed, seeming to cool down a bit.

He continued with his story, Ran seeming to accept it a bit more calmly now.

"Wow," Akako said slowly. "This would make a fantastic movie."

"Or TV series," Kaito suggested. "Maybe we could even do our own acting."

The four laughed and turned their attention back to the screen.

"He's getting close to the point where we come in," Michael said worriedly to Kaito.

"Don't worry," Kaito assured him, "I doubt he'll do anything rash."

"And then," Shinichi said, "Heiji and I raced to the Tower. Somehow they--Michael and Kaito anyway--beat us there and were waiting when we arrived. Apparently the person they met with told them to find Miyano Shiho and they'd exchange her for Akako."

"Why did that person ask /them/ to find her when their own men couldn't?" Ran asked, puzzled.

Just then another voice came over the speakers, one whose owner wasn't visible on the camera. "Shinichi, could you come here for a minute?"

Shinichi looked up the stairs. "Yeah, Dad." He stood up and hurried over to the stairs, out of the camera's view.

Kaito grinned. "Contingency plan," he said. "If I can't shut him up, have his dad do it."

Michael raised his eyebrows. "You told Kudo-san?"

"No," Kaito said irritably. "He told me. Apparently he knew my dad's identity when he was chasing the original Phantom Thief, and it wasn't that much of a stretch to make to get to the new one being his son."

"Oh," Michael nodded.

Just then Shinichi reappeared, a bit more subdued, and continued the story, leaving out the part about Michael and Kaito's side occupation. He also left out the part about Akako's magic, presumably because he didn't believe it. That was expected.

After he finally finished recounting his tale, Ran was looking a bit out of it. "I think I'm going to have to go home and think about this," she said slowly. She stood up and picked up her purse. "See you in school tomorrow, Shinichi." She waved and left.

"Let's go." Michael slipped his computer back into his backpack and they hurried to Agasa's front gate. They waited in the shadow until Ran had passed, then they scurried over to Shinichi's house and into his yard. 


	42. Chapter 41

"Hey, Kudo," Kaito said happily. "I see you remembered your promise."

"I don't recall promising you anything," Shinichi retorted haughtily. "And how did you know about that anyway?"

"I have my ways," Kaito said mysteriously. He partially deflated when Yuusaku appeared behind Shinichi with the wireless camera dangling from his hand.

"It wasn't very well hidden," Yuusaku commented, returning it.

Michael smirked. "I tried to give him a chance at privacy, but..."

Shinichi scowled at him. "You know," he said, "I'm twice your size now."

"You'd pick on a little kid half your size?" Michael retorted. "I didn't think you'd stoop that far."

Yuusaku broke in, neatly avoiding disaster. "Come on in. I have a few questions anyway."

They trooped into the library and found seats for everyone. "So," Yuusaku said, looking around. "Everyone here is in the know, so to speak?"

"Everyone here has level 9 security clearance," Michael said, looking at his laptop screen. "That means they're cleared to know our secret identities--or at least, they know anyway." He looked up.

"You have a security clearance system?" Haibara asked dryly.

"Yeah," Michael said, skimming through it. "I keep files on everybody I meet."

"So that's a yes, then?" Yuusaku asked, amused. At Michael's nod, he continued. "Kuroba Kaito," he said, looking him over. "I knew your father. We had, if I may say so, many good times together."

"I gathered that," Kaito said cheerfully. "I'd still like to know how you knew his name--and why you didn't turn him in."

Yuusaku chuckled. "That would require level 10 clearance," he said, winking at Michael. "But anyway, you have avenged the death of your father. What do you plan to do now?"

Kaito considered the question. "I think I'll probably hang up the Kid uniform," he said slowly.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Michael said, looking at his computer screen. "I did an informal survey of nearly everyone in Tokyo with an email address. They're almost universally of the opinion that if Kaitou Kid retires, they're going to riot until he comes back."

Kaito blinked. Shinichi looked surprised; Haibara looked--stone-faced. Akako just grinned.

"Well then, in the interests of public safety, I'd better not quit just yet," he said, smirking. "But I really don't have any further reason to continue being Kid."

Michael shrugged. "In a way, I can see where you're coming from," he said. "But I'm beginning to look at it a bit like hacking--and my hacking shows it," he said, rolling his eyes. "I'm getting a bit more flamboyant and I even sent a notice last time I hacked NASA."

"Last time you did _what_?" Shinichi's jaw dropped.

"Speaking of NASA," Haibara interrupted, "that's another option for Pandora."

"You're right," Michael said immediately. "I don't know why I didn't think of that."

"The only question would be getting it into space, and out of the solar system," Yuusaku pointed out. "It's not like you can just build a probe in your back yard."

Michael grinned. "No," he said. "It's more like getting a team of uber-geeks to build one, then sneaking the stone aboard at the last minute."

"Won't that affect their delicate calculations?" Haibara asked.

"No," Michael said, taking out the Stone. He took it out and released it in midair. It floated, then began sinking slowly towards the ground. "It's practically weightless even on Earth."

"Incredible," Shinichi said; he'd never actually seen it first hand. "It's like nothing I've ever seen before."

"And hopefully," Akako added, "like nothing you'll ever see again."

"There is always hope," Michael said, putting it away.

* * *

A brown-haired teenager surveyed the floor where the huge probe was being mounted in its chassis, bound for the outer reaches of the Solar System.

"Hey, kid!" someone hollered. "Come give me a hand with this!"

Mitchell Reed hurried to help. He heaved a heavy steel girder into place, holding it as the tech fastened it on his end. Then the technician traded sides and fastened the other end down.

Unbeknownst to him, the Far Reaches probe now contained a cargo worth far more than the entire space program, something that many people in the world would kill for... if they only knew it existed.

Mitchell stood back, surveying his work. The Stone would automatically be released as the probe did its slingshot around Jupiter. Neither he nor anyone else could know when; that he'd made sure of. It would drift off in a random direction, just another unobtrusive piece of space debris.

And, more importantly, it would avert the greed of the human race--the desire to monopolize on the One Source of immortality, but for the opposite reason: To enslave and destroy, rather than to grant life to those who needed it most.

At least, he hoped it would.

After all, Haibara's attempts to synthesize the contaminant based on its molecular characteristics had failed... but that didn't mean it was impossible. He had released a tiny virus, designed to be self-organizing, programmed to mesh together into one large information network over the Internet. It would alert him if anyone, on any computer, were to access or create a set of diagrams similar to those of the contaminant.

He could only hope that would be sufficient. He'd done the best that he could; and that was all anyone could do.

Two weeks later, Okuda Michael and Haibara Ai were watching as the Far Reaches probe's launch was televised, live, to their elementary school classroom. They were the only ones there who knew of the probe's special cargo, and its most important mission.

But now, everything was back to normal... or as normal as life can be, when you're eighteen and having to pretend you're in second grade.

/Then again/ he thought, /that's why they invented online colleges./

* * *

Yep, that's all folks. I hope you enjoyed it; if so, say so! I always welcome feedback, even if I don't always respond to it.

On a side note, I've received one complaint about my fanfic being centered around an Original Character. Well, now that I'm finished with this one, you'll be pleased to know(I hope) that my next fanfic will not have (many) OCs and none in prominent positions. It's a plunny that's been chasing me around for a while and I'm going to expand it into a full-length fanfic(if there is such a thing...). I think it's going to be good. But, we'll have to see.

In the meantime, I might release a few more plunnies I come across, if they're good enough. It all depends on how often I get to the library--and how much time I get there.

And notice--exactly 42 chapters, counting the prologue!

Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish!

--Mitsuhiko2


End file.
